I feel that I need to apologize both to myself and to those of you who read this for being absent for so long. I have been very busy and it has been hard for me to find time to sit down and write. I have thought a lot about things to write about and then somehow time just slips away. Anyway this was going to be a place where I was going to reflect about my day but given the time that has lasped I am going take it to a larger scale and reflect about my summer so far.
Things that I love about this summer....
-Spending time with my partner, who has finally graduated after three years of grad school on top of a full time job and part-time internship. It is really nice to be able to share more of my days with her. Making and planning meals is a whole lot more enjoyable when I get to share it with her, not to mention the other time we get to spend together.
-Swimming. I love to swim, I always have and summer would never be the same without it. I grew up swimming in the lake that my mom grew up on and now has a house on, which means this lake holds a lot of history for me and my family and is a special place, especially in the summer. I particularly love some of the first swims I had this year when it was still cold, but it was the kind of cold that lets you know you are alive, it awakens every nerve in your body and though your initial reaction is to leap out of the water, I never get tired of the sensation of getting used to the temperature. I also got the opportunity to swim in Lake Michigan which I always love. Swimming in Lake Michigan usually involves me running from the beach into the water as fast as I can because it is usually the kind of cold that makes your body go numb, and this is the only way I know I will get in. What I love about Lake Michigan is the shear power and intensity of the waves, it feels as though she is constantly reminding me that she is a body of water that demands respect, and if I forget that for one minute she is sure to remind me by pummeling me with another wave. It reminds me of swimming in the ocean which I don't get to do very often but have fond memories of the times that I have. My most recent swimming experience was memorable not for the swimming but for another reason. My friends and I went camping at a state park in Indiana which included a lake. Now this was a fairly large lake with a teeny tiny spot allowed for swimming, a spot that was roped off and only swimming within it's boundaries was allowed. This was enforced by a woman (a DNR/ Conservation Officer) who on a occasion randomly would come out with a bull horn and from a distance reprimand any one who was violating the confinement of the rope. Oh but this was only one of her many duties, she was also responsible for the enforcement of the "buddie check". I can only ever remember doing a buddie check when I was at Girl Scout camp many moons ago, so when I was swimming within inches of total strangers in water up to my upper waist and was ordered to leave the water and find my buddie, at first I found this annoying, but later it was one of the highlights of my trip. Observing all of the people move as group out of the water, some looking around with the same puzzled look that I had "are we really supposed to get out", while others walked out with a air of familiarity. My absolute favorite were the children who briskly walk out like they were well aware of the consequences of not finding their buddy, and also well aware that the quicker they were the faster they could get back in the water. This was the best part and one I will remember for a long time, when she gave the signal to go back in the water the children all ran as fast as they could back into the water as if their life depended on it. This was a beautiful sight both because it reminded me of being a kid who never wanted to get out of the water, and because it is impossible not to smile when you are in the presence of such shear joy displayed by children.
-My cats. They have the wonderful ability of displaying exactly how I feel when it is hot. I mean so hot that all you want to do is lay down, where the act of breathing feels like too much movement, and so they lay there like flat fur pancakes so as to capitalize on the most surface area, and embody what I wish that I could doing on these hot summer days.
-My vegetable garden. This is my first garden and I love it. It is exactly what I wanted it to be and the best part about it is that I find that it is teaching me so much more than how to grow vegetables. So this doesn't become another piece like the above description of swimming I will hold off for another post soley dedicated to my garden.
-Friends. I have a wonderful group of friends and lots of good memories already this summer. Some highlights; sitting on my porch drinking beer and talking about our days, after making a wonderful dinner together that I know will for sure be followed up with a trip for ice cream later. Day and weekend trips where we created more memories and shared parts of our lives with each other that further binds our friendships.
-Play games. The kind of games where someone eventually has to establish a time limit or it feels like we will never stop. And having the opportunity to play Sequence, one of my favorite games, with the maximum of 12 people and naming myself "the closer" for having the luck of being able to win the game for my team on more then one occasion.
-My Family. Summer is always a time that we have the largest number of us together, and though because of my own doing I can sometimes feel like an outsider in my family, I appreciated the time we get to spend together. Especially the times that I spend with individual family members, or when it is a smaller group of us, it is these times that a cherish and love my family for.
And eventually the Sun. Summer and all things that it brings to my life would not be possible without the Sun. Mornings when the cool night air is still lingering and sitting in the Sun can feel so good. The amazing golden light that the Sun reflects on everything at the end of the day. The intensity in the middle of the day that reminds you how powerful the Sun is. The energy that the Sun brings to all living things that live to their fullest potential in the summer.
I thank the Sun and Water, my friends and family, and my cats for my Summer.
