I love summer. Its color, warmth, life. If you know me at all, you know this about me. Not big news. I like all the seasons, but I LOVE summer.
When I was a kid, August was the hottest month. We used to complain when we started school in early September that we weren’t allowed to wear shorts, cuz it was still hot. That has changed in the last 60 years. July is now usually the hottest month, and August is sashaying, ever so slowly, into autumn.
Labor Day, the traditional end of summer in America, is less than a month away now. The kids will go back to school the day after in my small town. The cross country team, the football team, and the marching band have all started practice. The temps are still quite warm, but the light is different. It gets dark earlier, but beyond that, it’s just the slant of the sun, and the way it plays on the leaves, that says soon.
Soon everything will be pumpkin-spiced and bundled up against the cold north wind. It’s just a whisper now—change is coming—but it’s in the breeze, the yellow on the plant leaves, the light. I hear get ready as I notice the birds and the butterflies and the bees busy gathering up the last of the bounty as they anticipate their journeys elsewhere or hibernation here.
I’m counting the days: how many more bike rides, how many afternoons reading under the umbrella in the backyard, how many more times will I have to mow the lawn? With all due respect to the Beach Boys, there is no such thing as endless summer here in the north country. It’s fleeting and finite, even in the best years.
It’s all here and then it’s gone. In a rush – just like that. Poof! All the warmth, the bright golden sunlight, the flowers, the birds and the bunnies. Many losses in the coming weeks and months, and then the long, cold, dark winter.
There are good things, too, about this transition, though. The tourists will leave, and the summer residents, and so traffic will be less of a headache everyday as I try to make my way through town. The grocery store shelves will be stocked again and remain so throughout the week, so weekly shopping will be less like a desperate scavenger hunt and more like something that just needs to be done whenever it’s convenient.
I won’t have to wear sunscreen! I get to watch the marching band practice, and when I lived in this house full-time, I could watch the football games on Friday nights from my front porch. The little kids will have gym outside when school starts again, and I’ll get to watch them run around the track in the morning while I’m journaling. They’re a riot!
I’ll take the air conditioner out of the window in the hall upstairs at mom’s, so the sun will shine through in the morning again. That will make the cats happy. No insect people in the house, requiring gentle removal. Just usually a spider or two in the bathroom to keep me company through winter.
I will ride on Zwift, which is way less complicated and less dangerous than riding outside, though not exactly as much fun. Still better than it used to be when I couldn’t ride at all for 8 months out of the year.
I will start art journaling again, and doing other “inside” things. I’ll clean both houses, something I refuse to do in the summer. That will make my mom happy.
It goes fast, summer. It’s not over yet, though, and that’s what I’m focused on. I will soak up these last days, store them away, and pull them out in memory on the coldest February days.
Autumn is lovely in many ways, and I’ll get into the spirit of that soon, too. Usually I’m able to get in some good rides in September and October, with a few extra layers, of course, but that’s okay, too. No sunscreen! The trees put on quite a show, and I know some great gravel routes through the woods nearby, that I usually only ride in the fall.
I’m not a pumpkin spice girl, and not a fan of apples, either, except in pie, of course! I like cocoa, though, and that’s my fall treat. I have A LOT of sweaters, and way more warm clothes than shorts and t-shirts. Getting them all out is like greeting old friends.
The list is long. Goodness abounds in all the seasons, and I’m here for all of it.
I have learned over the years to find happiness in what is. Wishing my life away waiting for what I want, and not what is, is a waste of time, and now that I have less of it ahead, I’m more mindful of how I spend it.
I can’t change the circumstances of my life, especially the weather, but I can change my thinking about it, my focus. There is good to be found in most everything, but sometimes I have to look hard for it. If I make the effort, though, I always find it.
That doesn’t mean that I won’t be sad about summer’s end, or that I won’t curse the wind and rain at least once this fall. I’m not perfect.
Just human. I’m better than I used to be, though. More skillful, I like to think. Always more to learn, though, and changes to come in the years ahead that will challenge me, I know.
That’s life, and I’m grateful for every minute of it.
💕