Remember those long, lazy summer afternoons that never seemed to end? You know, when the cotton was high and the livin’ was easy? Well, I want to know where they went. I’m not talking about this summer, although, heaven knows, it shot by while I was still shopping for an Easter dress, but summer in general.
I think about it all through the rainy winters. I say, “Next summer, I’m really going to use the pool. I tell myself that wet hair easily becomes dry hair, even curled hair, in just a few minutes with the help of a hairdryer. I tell myself that even if I don’t go in, an afternoon spent writing by the pool would probably generate amazing fiction.
I watch the February rain pouring down on my patio in an early dusk and think about the lingering meals we’ll have there when summer comes, about barbecued chicken and homemade ice cream. Well, I did manage to barbecue a chicken or two, but that’s pretty much the extent of it.
Maybe if summer came with a blast of trumpets, it wouldn’t catch me so off guard. But winter eases into spring, and spring into summer and then summer shoots past with the speed of a skyrocket, and I’m left facing September wondering where it went.
Well, no more. This summer still has a week or so left, and I will get to the pool, and even eat outside. But more important, I’ve decided enough with the disappearing seasons, because it’s not just the season that has shot by, but a chunk of my life. And you don’t get those back! So here is what I’m going to do. Every season, I’m going to decide what I need to do to really live in that season. And I’m going to post it right here.
Why don’t you join me in this experiment? Those lazy, never-ending days of summer might be more of a fantasy than a memory, but if we take it from here, we can make some new, real, memories, not only of summer, but of the rest of the year, too.
How was your summer? Did you go to the lake? Snooze in the hammock? Sit outside till late watching fireflies? Or did yours slip past before you knew it too?
Leave a Reply