Day 67: The Signs of summer, Ahhhhhh!

What are the signs of summer and why do they make us beam with delight?  There are so many visions that bring a warm smile to my face.  Can you picture this? Skinny shirtless boys riding their bikes in 95 degree heat with broad smiles on their faces forgetting their safety so as to ride shakily without holding the handlebars.  Lemonade stands with real pitchers of iced drink for sale at a nominal price; the faces of people who are sitting and smiling at the beach drenched in sweat and sun tan oils; Washing your car in the morning and not minding getting wet so as to evade the heat of the afternoon.

The memories of past summers are deeply and willingly engrained in my mind like the creases in my smile:  The faces of friends reddened by the heat of the day; Our refusal to accept the force of the sun and putting baby oil and iodine on our skins to enhance the sun’s strength for tanning; walking down to the corner store to buy a soda and some ice cream; collecting bottles to return to the store to get the money we needed to buy the soda and ice cream; sneaking onto a neighbor’s property to sit under their tree for relief and maybe use their tire swing while we are there.

Is it the memory of our youth that makes me smile or simply the fact that these summer rituals (well some of them) get repeated generation by generation each year?  What is it about summer that makes us feel freer than before?  Perhaps it is the option of more play for us even as adults that strengthens our love of summer.  Perhaps it is the fact that our clothes are stripped to their bare minimum that encourages us to be playful or even foolish.

I like to think of summer as a time for regenerating, rebuilding our personal strength to face the colder and harsher days ahead.  The cycle of our yearly life is an exquisite one with multiple parallels to our overall life expectancy.  How lovely that we can regenerate our humble existence on a periodic basis.  How magnificent is it that our memories can fill us with comfortable scenes of the past to relive and review at our leisure.

I love summer.  I love how it makes me feel, how it makes others feel. Enjoy the day my friends.