Dear Beautiful Summer,
You have some marvelous power over me. When you come to my days, you wrap your arms around me and I am warm and happy. You can be HOT but you never have to be. You engage me no matter what your mood. Even the majestic Mr Sun wants to be with you as much as he can. Today, the summer solstice, he has you in his arms for fourteen plus hours. You are in his embrace from before 5:00 am until after 9:00 pm. Heaven. He stays in the sky until he can no longer keep his eyes open and you sooth him with tender breeze filled kisses. Nice.
I love your light. I love the flowers that you give me. I love the balmy sense that the treadmill has broken and it's okay to just breathe. I rode my bike down to the post office at 3:00 this afternoon and was taken with the clear view of the nearby mountains and the warm air on my shoulders. In a little bit, I will take the puppy Ellie on a neighborhood walk and I will run into a number of folks from the neighborhood out for an evening stroll. You, Summer, bring people together in casual and leisurely ways. You are the epitome of relaxation and freedom. I even love that, on a good day in summer, I can get away with tank tops, shorts and flip flops - wonderful freedom made real. So, listen, I won't linger long. I simply want you to know that you matter to me. You give me a reason to keep going when the other seasons don't fit well or act in a way that I consider unfriendly. You never let me down and I will always love you.
XOXOXOXXOXOXO
Graciewilde
Did you know that being retired makes it year-round summer, except maybe for the snow and ice in winter? I'll bet you never thought of that before. Just fogured I'd run that up the flagpole, and see if anyone saluted it.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmmm - have I ever thought of that before? Maybe once or twice (or two or three thousand times...) -- someday it will be mine. Unless I die first.
DeleteYou make summer sound rather appealing. I tend to focus on the heat, the mosquitoes and having to keep my kids entertained.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy it!
Just for fun, you might want to read last year's love letter: http://sebtown294.blogspot.com/2011/06/love-letter.html
DeleteI knew it was in my archives but I didn't want to read it before I wrote yesterday's. I like last year's better but you can never go wrong with a love letter, right? :-)
I agree with deathwriter: your version of summer does sound great. Like her, though, I tend to focus on the negatives, like the oppressive heat (75 degrees is warm enough for me), the bugs, and the need to give my kids baths every night after slathering them with sunscreen every day. Still, your version is appealing, and I would do well to embrace summer in the way that you do.
ReplyDeleteCheck out my response to Deathwriter above --I wrote a love letter last year:
Deletehttp://sebtown294.blogspot.com/2011/06/love-letter.html
but failed to note it here. You might like it :-)
You remind me of that childhood love of summer that I want to rekindle. Summer to me as a child was pure-T-heaven. I get a glimpse of that feeling from time to time, but I'm going to see if I can't jog it loose a bit more often. Summer can be magical.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think I hear Dolly Parton belting out to summer "I will always love you...."
Oh, yes, summer was heaven as a kid. Hours to read, to play baseball, to ride bikes - NO homework - Yes, chores - our mother gave us each a chore list every morning - breakfast dishes, wash kitchen floor, clean Papa's bathroom, make lunch, (Mark would have to do the lunch dishes!), peel potatoes for dinner (10 pounds of them) -- that sort of thing - but usually after lunch the afternoon was ours -- breathe --
Deleteas noted above, you might enjoy last year's love letter:
http://sebtown294.blogspot.com/2011/06/love-letter.html
Thanks Gracie, for you poetic ode to the wonderful time of year that we call summer. I agree with everything you said, and wish I could have said it so well.
ReplyDeleteI love summer, but like a couple of other commenters, get a little whiny about the heat. If I had no responsibilities and could spend every day in the waters of my pet state park lake, it would be a whole different story. ;)
ReplyDeleteOne of the many things that I have really learned from my blogging friends is how lucky I am with the weather here. yes, I whine about the fog but it doesn't get really hot and it doesn't get really cold - maybe a handful of above 90 days in a typical year and a handful of below 30 in a typical year. Lucky to be me.
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