Most of you that know me, even a little bit, know that I DO NOT like summer. I'm not big on summer activities (other than a skin damaging good tan!) - and I often marvel at the fact that I have lived for over 30 years in a place that has seemingly endless summers! As I get ready to do indoor activities today, since outside it promises to be hot and steamy again, I have been thinking back to childhood. My mom loved her hi-fi! She belonged to a couple of record clubs so there was always a new stack of 33's on the turntable, she always cleaned house to music (I do too!). I particularly loved Nat King Cole, and I learned all the words to his songs.
I wonder why it is that I don't like summer? I know heat is one thing, I prefer cool/cold mountain air, tall trees, sparkling lakes, sweaters and bank fishing- oh and a fire in the fireplace. But deeper than that I think is that I love routine, schedules and the 'order' that seems to be in place the rest of the year. While most people look forward to the relaxed days of summer, I actually start counting down the days until Labor Day - when my routine is back in place.
I keep many countdowns on my phone and this is my favorite one right now - just 23 days until my home is transformed with simple fall decor- quilts, gourds, and pine cones that I have collected from the mountains . Often I have to close the blinds and turn the AC just a little cooler in order to complete the ambiance. I feel kind of weird that I don't embrace summer, I seem to be a loner in that respect..... those lazy days that Mr. Cole sang of just don't appeal! But what would life we like if we were all the same? Variety and differences are empowering. I spent so many years trying to fit into a mold that other people designed for me. I dressed and ordered my home as I thought my mom and society expected. (Yet she was probably the last person that would tell me to 'follow' - she was such an independent and strong woman, if I had asked she probably would have said BE YOU!) What I wouldn't give to talk with her now and express how important my individuality is to me. I think she would approve.
If I want to grow my hair long at 58 years old, gray and not 'socially acceptable' - I can. If I want to keep a tree in my home, (Christmas tree) decorated for each season just because it makes me happy - I can. If I choose to simplify my life and not be driven by the 'more stuff' mentality, I can. If I want to work at Direct Sales - even when people think it is a scheme or a scam - I can, and succeed at it. Not with the goal of more stuff, but with the goal of provision so that I can live simply in a mountain cabin someday. I wish I had been as comfortable in my own skin and with my own self at an earlier age, life would have been much different!
What drives you? Do you work yourself to exhaustion so that you can have more stuff? Do you strive to save so that you can take an extravagant vacation, then are so tired you don't enjoy it? I think that is why simplicity appeals to me so much - to be able to embrace and enjoy the simple pleasures that God provides, too bad our world revolves so much around the 'stuff'.
So, as I endure these last lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer....... I dream of peace, on a mountain- wearing a sweater that I knitted.
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