I try not to grasp at summer...lamenting its fleeting nature... to enjoy it thoroughly while remembering that certain activities have their windows of opportunity, windows of varying size. I may be able to partake in some activities for months – bicycling or gardening – and yet enjoy others only on certain days or weeks – like eating the last of the asparagus harvest (usually stop picking it by July 4th) or go to local events like the Afton Craft Fair or Unadilla Days. There are only a few days each summer that the weather is perfect for kayaking and swimming at Sharon’s place on Gerry Lake on one of my days off. There are certain weeks I have to notice the hummingbirds or the fireflies or to grill freshly picked zucchini or snip cilantro, when it is full yet before it flowers, to add to a corn-black bean salad.
I hear the anxieties and regrets of others. August is starting...the fall horizon is not so distant...school will start in countable days and they haven’t yet read a beach-book or scrapbooked last summer’s vacation. Stressing starts early. And the line between leisurely preparation and pressure seems so thin – like those prancing or rushing to get to shop when the displays are new and the most choices of colorful towels and bedding for college dorms are available. Or for me to just sit and smell the roses without looking for the pruner to cut back the bush.
I intend to not grasp summer. And I’ll try not to complain when it is SO hot and humid...to remember that this summer weather is what I crave when months later I’ll complain about icy winter roads. But now I want to get outdoors to breathe in the summer air, to pick a few weeds out of the garden, to pluck a few berries off a backyard bush to top my cereal, to read on the back deck. Summertime...the living is easy...the time is now.
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