Just Hearing the Word “Summer” Makes You Relax a Bit
Summer months offer an inviting opportunity. It’s like a glimmering swimming pool just waiting for you to dive in. Fun and shenanigans seem to occur effortlessly. The season is associated with a variety of wonderful traditions. No one can deny, it is HOT out there. But how quickly we forget all about the heat AND the humidity when we start waxing nostalgic about the summer rituals we grew up with. When the temperatures creep up, summer’s magic apprehends us. So, let’s take a fun trip down memory lane with a list of blissful southern summer customs that are a delight for all the senses.
- Sparklers for fun and as a mosquito deterrent.
- Catching supper (hopefully).
- Rocking, swinging, and talking on the porch until the mosquitos finally chase you in at night.
- Pinching off the end of a honey suckle bloom and tasting the nectar.
- Cold watermelon and a shaker of salt.
- Big red home-grown tomatoes.
- Going to the farmers market and choosing from the colorful baskets of fresh produce.
- Biting into a peach and the juice dripping off your elbow.
- Listening to the crickets, cicadas, and katydids.
- The sound of the ice-cream truck approaching your neighborhood.
- Flip flops flopping.
- The sizzle and smell of burgers on the grill.
- Pumping your legs to make the swing go higher and higher.
- Toes in the sand and breathing the salty air.
- The breeze in your hair as you coast down the road on a bicycle.
- Picnics with fried chicken, potato salad, and sweet tea.
- Running and giggling through the sprinkler.
- Ice cold fresh squeezed lemonade.
- Getting caught outside during a “gully washer” rainstorm.
- Picking berries for a cobbler.
What a privilege to soak up the pleasures of summer in the south. There truly are too many to count. Summer really is for savoring and for living life with more enjoyment. There seems to be more laughter in the air and a spirit of simplicity and playfulness. After all, it is often the simple things in life that bring the most joy.
As F. Scott Fitzgerald says in The Great Gatsby, “And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees…I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” Perhaps this is what summer is all about: beginning again; a chance to, once more, genuinely enjoy life and the pleasures of warm days and long evenings. Perhaps summer is an opportunity to hear children and remember and reconnect with our own inner child. For a time, let’s allow ease and simplicity to be how we live. Let the enjoyment of life be how we navigate the warm, sunny moments of summer. Let’s find the simple joys of the season.