There's Still Time for Watermelon

Here we are already at the end of July and nearing the end of the Dog Days of Summer. 

Where does the time go?!? I say this out loud often, even though I never get an answer. 

Time just keeps doing what time does. Ticking away second by second. 

Time doesn’t care that I haven’t gone to the beach this summer, to the mountains, or on a hike, a bike ride, or a picnic. It doesn’t care about catching lightning bugs, eating dinner underneath the stars with dear friends, or the fact that I haven’t yet eaten my share of watermelon. It just doesn’t care.

So many people I talk to, including myself too much of the time, are riding the “all work and no play merry-go-round.” As my mother often used to say to me, “All work and no play makes Jane a very dull girl.” I always hated it when she said this, even though I knew she was right.

I’ve been asking my clients to reflect on some of their favorite childhood memories to help them remember the joys of summer. As the stories of ice cream trucks, popsicles, water sprinklers, swimming lessons, BBQs, sunburns, and family road trips roll out of their mouths, their memories recall many of my own.

I can smell the mix of chlorine and sunscreen at the swimming pool and, out of breath from playing Marco Polo, climbing out to lay on the warm concrete.

The joy of playing outside all day until my mom called us in for dinner and we arrived home just before dark, head to toe sweaty, sticky, and dirty after a day of fort making and mud pie baking. 

And the contentment of taking a warm bath after dinner and climbing into a bed of crisp and cool line-dried sheets, so exhausted we could barely keep our eyes open. 

This is what I am craving. 

A week in the sunshine where I end my day with a body so emptied by an outdoor adventure that I fall asleep when my head hits the pillow. (A welcome change from the brain-drained tired from sitting in front of my computer all day long where when I finally do get to sleep, my mind keeps working its way through my to-do list. All. Night. Long.)

My husband and I are joining my daughter and her boyfriend in Whidbey Island, Washington in mid-August to visit my former in-laws for a week (yes, you read that right). I can hardly wait.

I am so looking forward to getting away with these special people. I know that we’ll fill our days hiking, kayaking, eating my mother-in-law’s delicious cooking, and watching the sunset. Best of all, with this bunch, I can count on continuous soul-filling belly laughs.

What about you?

What are you craving this summer?

I’d love to hear about it. In the meantime, I wish for you more than enough time to still seek out summer.