In the sweet, soothing days of summer, people give themselves to something that gets lost 75 percent of the time during the rest of the year. In summer, individuals, couples and families make the time to connect through laughter, tugs of war, travel, adventures and misadventures of all sorts. Money and time are readily invested to be together.
When life becomes less than satisfactory or perplexing, people schedule to see me in session. Often one of my questions is, “What did you do last summer, or what are you looking forward to doing this summer?” The light returns to their eyes and their faces lighten up as they talk, interrupting one another to tell about the fun they had or are hoping to experience.
How important is this quarter of time? Look around you; likely, the pictures you bothered to frame are from those splishes, splashes and images captured in summer.How do you get enough summer to bask in it’s warmth the whole year through? Pictures do help. Call each other and remind each other. Display your souvenirs of rocks, feathers, spoons, placemats, fans, magnets and all the other things you picked up in the moment.
Affection for summer is a shared love that has long been celebrated by artists.
Musician John Mayer wrote, “‘Cause a little bit of summer is what the whole year is all about.”
Novelist Henry James penned, “Summer afternoon–summer afternoon; to me these have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
Former First Lady Jackie Kennedy said, “Whenever I was upset by something in the papers, Jack always told me to be more tolerant, like a horse flicking away flies in the summer.”
And you? At the close of summer 2018, what will be your cherished takeaways?