A Summer Time State of Mind

Just as the changing seasons have their own patterns of weather, temperatures and natural phenomena - like leaves changing colors in the fall, snow covering the land in the winter, and flowers blooming in spring -  I have often thought that each season has its own state of mind as well. In the fall we scurry to bring in the harvest and prepare for the winter ahead. In winter we hunker down with our blankets and hot cocoa to ward off the cold. In spring we rejoice as the first green tips of the crocus and daffodils push through the earth and the trees begin to bud. Now it's finally summer, and I find myself in my summer state of mind.

I don't know what your state of mind is when summer finally arrives, but for me summer is the time when thoughts of work, schedules and deadlines fall away like receding waves at the shore. I walk slower, more mindfully. I savor food more. I have a hard time taking my eyes off the sky. I spend hours outdoors watching the antics of the birds and the fluttering ballet of the butterflies. I watch bees going from plant to plant doing their jobs (at least someone is working). I gather every luscious moment and stash it away so that I can take it out when the snow covers the landscape and let it warm my soul with its memory. I find myself staring into space with no idea how long I've been sitting there ... something calls to me from beyond the hills in the distance. I swear there are days when that longing is for somewhere I have been before even if I have no memory of it. Perhaps, as some of my Native American teachers once told me, it is my blood memories of a time and place when I lived on the land, not away from it, when every tree, plant, bird and animal was my relative and we dreamed the summer together.

So I'm throwing guilt over work not done out of the open window and allowing the sweet morning songs of the birds flow in. I'm taking long walks before it gets too hot so I my eyes can bathe in the colors of flowers in bloom. I'm breathing in the smells of newly cut grass covered with morning dew. I want to remember it all, every moment of it. I'm kicking back during the heat of the day with a cold glass of ice tea and a juicy novel and, who knows, maybe even an afternoon nap ... something I never allow myself the rest of the year. There's no rushing because in summer, time stands still.  It's just my summer time state of mind.

And so it is.