Thursday, July 1, 2010

Summer Time & the Living Is Easy





“Summer Time and the Living Is Easy
Fish are a-jumpin’
And the cotton is high.
You’re daddy’s rich
And you mama’s good-looking.
So, hush, little baby, don’t you cry.”
By George & Ira Gershwin from “Porgy and Bess”

Monday, June 21st was the first day of summer and the opportunity to live easy. It’s the time we all dream about during those long cold days of winter. Granted, you just never know if the day will be calm & beautiful or stormy & turbulent – BUT STILL, it’s summer!!!!

Kids instinctively have the right attitude about summer: Run and play outside until they fall asleep like a dead rock at night.

Someplace, somehow or for some reason, American adults have lost the ability to relax and enjoy summer. It’s begun to rub off on our children with the over scheduling and permission to be constantly connected to something electronic. This isn’t a criticism, it’s a wake-up call that we’re allowing the Blessings of summer to slowly run through our fingers - making it only a memory of by-gone days.

Gardeners and farmers, perhaps more than the average, know the benefits of enjoying summer moments. A sight still relevant in all small rural communities: Two men in denim and caps, elbows on the bed of a pick-up truck, both gazing at the sky and discussing “conditions”.

We can’t successfully garden without taking time to see what is and what can be. The country song about taking time to smell the roses is often lost in the hustle to get someplace and do something.

As we celebrate the official return of summer, I am hopeful our readers will assess their busy lives and make a decision to return a bit of time to enjoying the summer. A realization that many of our need to do, get and go are self imposed. A realization that enrolling our children in every sport, class and camp may be generous but it may be robbing them of their youth. The youth that many of you enjoyed.

As for adults, it’s not a sin against the great higher being to do absolutely nothing for a time but enjoy the day. It takes a confidence in one’s self to go home from the rat race of work and relax. It takes an exceptional parent to go against the flow of organization and allow your children freedom this summer. It takes an independent nature to not mow the yard on Saturday when everyone in the neighborhood is mowing.

“Summer time and the living is easy.” Make it yours this summer!

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