Ode to Summer

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. –John Lubbock

Yesterday was the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, my favorite day of the year, I think. And today is the first day of summer. While spring-time is my favorite season with its promise of good things to come, summer is the fulfillment of that promise. How I love cool summer mornings, with the expectation of adventures to be had and a temperature so delicious you could almost scoop it up and eat it. I relish the freedom from sweaters and boots and gloves and woolly hats, even though the trade-off is heat so sweltering that it almost melts you into a puddle. I love eating fresh-picked watermelon and corn from the farmer's stand and cooking with sun-ripened tomatoes and zucchini. And I savor every single minute of extra daylight summer affords.

As a kid, summer meant sleeping in, later bedtimes, trips to the library, going to the drive-in movies, sleeping out in the back yard and hours playing with friends. The days were filled with imagination-fueled adventures in tree-shaded backyards, board games in the refuge of cool basements, running through the sprinklers, neighborhood games like Kick-the-Can and Ghosts in the Graveyard and enjoying life at its best. As an adult, summer is spent in the pursuit of maintaining some semblance of a schedule, trips to the library, swimming with the kids, family reunions, board games in the refuge of the air-conditioned kitchen and enjoying life at its best.

Welcome summer! I'm so glad you're here!