Press Pause- It's Summer!

 Smell the sea and feel the sky, let your soul and spirit fly

Remember being a child and counting down the endless days until summer?  Those months that stretched ahead like a promise of freedom and adventure.

For me summer meant sleeping in while sunlight danced through my bedroom curtains.  It was the ice cream trucks melody drawing us outside, where we’d spend entire days lost in play and exploration.  Summer was dad loading us into the truck for camping adventures into another world~ where we wandered endless nature paths, hiked alongside streams, cooked our meals over crackling fires, and turned our giant sized tent into our temporary home.  

I can still smell the rubber as we inflated our blow up air mattresses, and nestled into fluffy sleeping bags, waiting for dad’s bedtime stories that lulled us to sleep with the sense that all was right with the world.  Those trips to 31 flavors~ were pure delight, each scoop a celebration.  And the beach days when we’d soak up far too much sun, emerging with skin kissed golden and hair thick with salt that I can still taste in my memories.  

These are the sweet treasures of childhood that time can never steal.

Now summer arrives with breathtaking speed, each season a gentle reminder of times precious nature.  The warmth of the sun on my face, the cool sand beneath my feet, and the rhythm of the waves at my seaside home all whisper the same message~ this moment is a gift.

Summer calls me to wander and play outdoors again, to dig my hands deep into garden soil, to savor that perfect scoop of gelato that melts all too quickly on my tongue.  It’s an invitation for long lazy lunches with friends, for cooking meals under the open sky, and for never stopping my journey of exploration, learning and becoming. . . 

So remember my friend- press pause and hold this season of summer close in your heart.  Don’t let these golden days slip away unfilled.  Instead, weave them full of the things that make your soul sing, the moments that will become tomorrows treasured memories, and the simple joys that remind us why we wait all year for summer to return.