I ate my first strawberry of the summer the other day. Oh, my! Ripe and juicy and bursting on the tongue with the sweetness that just says summer. Fleeting and delicious, here and gone in a flash. Spring has already hurried by, elbowed aside after a few short weeks. The early sweet green of spring leaves has ripened into the deep greens of summer foliage, and the first dandelions have already bloomed, seeded and blown away. Now we're in high summer, with all its blessings and challenges.
What do you love about summer? What are you looking forward to? Travel with family? Enjoying spending time in your garden? Spending time with friends?
When I was a girl, summers seemed to last forever. The days were so full - swimming at the lake, digging out popsicles from the big cooler on the porch, catching minnows in the stream. I'd spending long, hot afternoons reading in the hammock, rocking gently with one bare, dusty foot in the sand. In the evenings we'd play hide and seek in the gathering shadows, or run on the lawn, catching fireflies. We'd build a fire and toast marshmallows, and on the 4th of July we'd write our names with sparklers, lighting up the night. Sometimes my dad would take us out to the tallest hill in town to look at the stars; I can still see him pointing, teaching us the constellations. Summer was endless, full of pleasures and adventures year after year. And I thought it would always be that way.
But now every season seems to fly by, and summer most of all. It seems like one day I'm putting our first plate of sweet corn on the table, and the next I'm shivering at the door, watching the leaves falling.
When I look ahead to this summer, I've been thinking that I want to really savor it this year, more than ever before. It's so full of blessings and it goes by so quickly. And you know what? Now I know what I didn't, when I was that girl on the porch - there's no such thing as always. We never know what's ahead. Next summer there may be an empty place at the table. It might even be my last summer, who knows? So I'm going to try to take time to watch some sunsets, take that walk by the river, call a few friends I haven't seen in a while, and make the time count.
So here's to summer. Here's to the delicious foods - all the sweet fruits and fresh vegetables. Here's to the long days and the cool nights. Here's to adventures and new places and laughing around the table with people we love. Here's to another summer in our journey around the sun, you and me and all of us.
We live on a world with a full load of trouble and challenges to tackle, but for this one moment, hold a strawberry in your hand and take a bite, and savor the amazing blessing that is your life.
Happy summer, everyone!