"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time."
~John Lubbock
Being a Leo, I'm particularly fond of summertime. How I love to soak in the summer sun, basking in the glory of summer's palette of colors, bright yellows, pinks and blues of sunflowers, cornflowers, lupine, foxgloves, the lush green of leafy trees. Like the sunflower that turns to face the sunlight, stretching and growing to become its most radiant self, we too gratefully receive the gifts of the summer season of growth and expansion as we open to new experiences and enjoy life in all its fullness.
I remember as a child how summer would stretch endlessly on, with one objective only—to have a good time. Memories flood back as I think of summers past...swimming, tennis, endless rounds of tetherball, picnics, barbecues. A particular memory comes to me, of water skiing off the shoreline of the Long Island Sound in the days right after the movie Jaws was first released—it added to the thrill, just imagining what might be lurking in the water as you waited for the boat to come back around and pick you up after a fall. We probably all have a "first summer love" story. I recall many evenings spent watching the sunset from a secluded viewing spot above the beach that my teenage heartthrob and I affectionately referred to as "Our Place". Ahh...summer.
Another memory bubbles up...the summer of '65 when I received my first camera as a birthday gift. It was a Polaroid Swinger. It was the coolest thing! You could take a picture and develop it right on the spot. It was probably akin to the thrill of today's digital cameras where you can see the results right away. To me, it was just pure magic, and it sparked a life-long passion for photography.
And then there were summers at the lake in the Adirondacks, some of my most treasured memories. This image comes to me: laying in a guide boat on the lake on a moonless night looking up at the stars—totally surrounded by stars, the canopy above and the twinkling reflections on the flat smooth surface of the lake around us—it was a little disorienting at times actually, mysterious, dark and beautiful. And how exhilarating to wake in the pre-dawn hours to catch the morning mist rising from the lake (and perhaps to catch a fish or two, for the fisher folk among us :-). Hiking, kayaking, boulder hopping along the creek, sitting in the lean-to after dinner by the fire pit telling stories and singing songs...
Thank you, glorious summertime! May we appreciate and cherish the gifts and the memories.
I remember as a child how summer would stretch endlessly on, with one objective only—to have a good time. Memories flood back as I think of summers past...swimming, tennis, endless rounds of tetherball, picnics, barbecues. A particular memory comes to me, of water skiing off the shoreline of the Long Island Sound in the days right after the movie Jaws was first released—it added to the thrill, just imagining what might be lurking in the water as you waited for the boat to come back around and pick you up after a fall. We probably all have a "first summer love" story. I recall many evenings spent watching the sunset from a secluded viewing spot above the beach that my teenage heartthrob and I affectionately referred to as "Our Place". Ahh...summer.
Another memory bubbles up...the summer of '65 when I received my first camera as a birthday gift. It was a Polaroid Swinger. It was the coolest thing! You could take a picture and develop it right on the spot. It was probably akin to the thrill of today's digital cameras where you can see the results right away. To me, it was just pure magic, and it sparked a life-long passion for photography.
And then there were summers at the lake in the Adirondacks, some of my most treasured memories. This image comes to me: laying in a guide boat on the lake on a moonless night looking up at the stars—totally surrounded by stars, the canopy above and the twinkling reflections on the flat smooth surface of the lake around us—it was a little disorienting at times actually, mysterious, dark and beautiful. And how exhilarating to wake in the pre-dawn hours to catch the morning mist rising from the lake (and perhaps to catch a fish or two, for the fisher folk among us :-). Hiking, kayaking, boulder hopping along the creek, sitting in the lean-to after dinner by the fire pit telling stories and singing songs...
Thank you, glorious summertime! May we appreciate and cherish the gifts and the memories.
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