week 20: The fleeting feelings of Summer

The fastest season of the year

How is it already July?

I spend all of June wanting to capture the feeling of Summer that you get as a child on the last day of the school year.

No adult day in June feels the same as that childhood day.

It felt like even the weather knew it was the last day of school. The sun is welcoming you into Summer break.

Now, we slip into new seasons without much announcement, with barely any change to routine.

D- Doing: Trying to capture the feelings of Summer

If June is spent chasing the thrill of the last day of school, July is spent trying to hold onto Summer with everything you’ve got.

Trying to hold Summer in your hands is like trying to hold ocean-soaked sand in your hands; it slips between your fingers, evading your grasp.

As an adult, it is easy to measure Summer by vacations.

I am about to leave on a vacation myself, and I can’t help but think that it will finally feel like it’s Summer once I am there.

As a kid, a good Summer wasn’t measured by where you went, it was measured by how you felt.

I- Interested in: Experiencing Summer through feeling, not doing

Warm nights under the lingering sun.

Seeing more of your neighbors and friends.

Skin tight and tanned from time in the sun.

The same jean shorts you’ve been wearing all season that finally feel broken in.

Dinners that feel like a gathering at the table, rather than a routine refueling.

The same nature offers new experiences. Ribbits of frogs in the creek, the hiss of cicadas, the illumination of lightning bugs in your backyard.

None of these feelings require a vacation, but all of them capture Summer.

G-Getting: Cues from nature

As a cancer, a water sign, a lover of the beach and ocean, of course, I feel my best in Summer.

Every year I get older, I find it harder to experience the magic of Summer.

As a kid, a lot of the magic of summer comes from your parents, your siblings, and your community. You are ushered into the season with the end of school, and you experience its close with back-to-school preparation and the first day of class. These are perfect, neat bookends.

As adults, the only thing that tells us it is Summer is nature. Of course, we have the calendar, and the solstice, but what speaks more loudly are the longer days, the warmer sun, the late bloom of wildflowers, the return of the California hills from green to golden.

It is nature that bookends our season. If you aren’t connected to it, you might miss it altogether.

S- Suggesting: Experience summer through feeling, not posting

This time of year, it feels as though our feeds are littered with people posting their lavish vacations.

One thing you can always rely on is social media to provide you with false feelings.

You are not missing out on Summer because you are not going away on vacation.

When you are experiencing Summer with feeling, rather than doing, there is nothing to miss out on.

Things that help you feel Summer:

• Morning Sunlight

• After Dinner Walks

• Summer Mood Boards

• A towel and a book in nature

• At home aperativos- a spritz, a bowl of green olives, and a bowl of crisp potato chips

• Card games played in person

• Meeting for Happy Hour

• Grilling

• Eating local ripe tomatoes

• Swimming, anywhere you can

• Meeting just for ice cream

• More time with people you love

• Talking way past sunset