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Wednesday, August 6, 2008
An Ode to Summer
August brings much sadness to me each and every year. I can feel summer slipping away the minute I flip the calendar. Back to school shopping with my niece, Al Michael’s voice talking through my television set, college football tickets arriving in the mail, and the whispers of drier, cooler air carried on just the tip of the wind all speak to the imminent change of seasons, which I cannot help but mourn. It’s not that I dislike fall, it’s just that I love summer with unreasonable passion. My husband says “it’s my season.” And he’s right. Summer loves me, I believe, with the same intensity that I love it. The sun smiles down on me, my health improves, and I become more vital and alive. I love the sights and sounds of my youngest neighbors as they find ingenious ways to spend each moment of their unstructured days: Walking pet bunny rabbits, jumping through sprinklers, screaming happy screams for no apparent reason. I love summer clothes and the socially sanctioned dress code of “barely anything.” I love the tanned bodies of well-built construction workers in tank tops and the smell of fresh sweat when my husband comes in from pulling weeds and planting on a particularly hot day. I love iced-coffee and outdoor concerts and the freedom that seems to permeate the air while days in general get longer even as the working day seems shorter. It is August 6th already and I will soon say good-bye, making way for the remainder of another annual cycle of the New England seasons. I will do my best to enjoy my football tickets and boots and active fire place and burning candles until I can once again taste summer on the tips of a different kind of wind. I will rest up for that day when my vitality overflows once again and the energy of a hot sun infuses my body. And I will be sure to take a trip or two to a place that can recreate summer for me in the depths of my own short, dark winter days that I appreciate all the more when reminded of how they offer contrast with, and therefore remind me of, my favorite days of all.
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3 comments:
I look forward to each season before it arrives - and I carefully watch for the early signs of the change. Often, the trees start to drop leaves. This year, as its been a very wet August, that may not occur. But in other years, by August, some trees are dropping leaves due to drought. Some flowers beautiful in July, begin to become more bush than flower.
I often wish to live in Florida all year. I wonder sometimes how much I would miss the more pronounced change of seasons. Its the change that is exciting. Once winter is fully engaged, its difficult for me to see the beauty in it. Its a time for interior spaces, and those can be cozy I suppose.
My thoughts have been turning to Fall as I sense change is upon us. I recalled the circular nature of the seasons, and the comfort I get from that idea. Here is what Joseph Campbell said that I found from one of his old interviews or writings:
The circle represents a totality. Within the circle is one thing. It is encircled. That is the spatial aspect. The temporal aspect is that you leave, go somewhere, and come back. The circle immediately suggests a completed totality. Round and round and round. The years come again and again. The days come again and again. The months come again and again. You experience leaving home, going on your adventure, and coming back to home. There is a deeper meaning – the womb and the tomb. Burial – you put back into the earth for rebirth.
Thx for the reminder about the excitement of change and the importance of death and rebirth to the cycles of life. As someone with a strong Pluto in my astrological natal chart, such cycles are an inherrent part of my nature and important to honor. Happy pre-fall!
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