It doesn’t matter when you were last enrolled in school. School’s out for summer! Maybe school’s out forever! It doesn’t matter what age you are…summer is not just a season; it is a state of mind. It is an opportunity. You can always give your self permission to plan on summer fun. What are your plans for adventure? What do you want to do to enjoy the lazy days of summer? Remember it’s over before you know it! Summer only lasts for 90 something days. Look for all the ways you can enjoy it every day.
Sometimes you procrastinate…and then you miss out. You want to take a little trip. You pick a date and start to make the arrangements. Flights are sold out, hotels are booked and options are narrowed. And then you feel sad or disappointed or frustrated. If it was important, you would make the time to plan ahead. You would stop to make your plans a priority. You would stop making excuses. Maybe you are so focused on the busyness of your day to day routine, you’re unable to break away to think about the future. Maybe you’re not even aware of the present. You are not giving yourself time. You deserve your time more than anything or anyone else does. Remember, when you take care of yourself, everyone benefits.
Summer gives us more hours of sunshine. Even though it’s still 24 hours, we feel as if the day is longer. We have an opportunity to do more. Or to have the time to do less. Summer gives us permission to be a little lazy…to lay around the pool or stroll on the beach or play ball. Summer teaches us about temporary things. We get a summer job. We have a summer romance. We enjoy summer picnics and concerts in the park. We plant a summer garden. Maybe it’s part of our programming. We all went to school and then were given a summer break. We could sleep late and stay up late. We could hang out with our friends. Life was different in the summer. On some level, that little kid inside each one of us wants a break. We look forward to summer. We can play.
Summer gives us an opportunity for recreation. We can swim, play tennis or go away to camp. Summer can also give us an opportunity for re-creation…to create a new and improved version of our self. Sometimes people would recreate themselves during summer. When they returned to school in the fall, they had grown taller, lost weight, had their braces removed. Sometimes people returned with a new attitude of self-confidence after mastering a new skill like sailing or surfing. They were different. Summer gives us an opportunity to believe in possibilities. Summer is about freedom and hope.
I invite you to go back to that old school programming that allows you to take a little summer break. Re-invent yourself. Consider this special time when Mother Nature is exploding with abundance…and claim your own. Explore more. Stress less. Rest more. Do less. Be more.
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the blue sky, is by no means waste of time. ~John Lubbock, “Recreation,” The Use of Life, 1894