Hello everyone! Happy Summer!!!
Yes, we are officially in full throttle summer! This is the second week of July and I hope you are enjoying some of what summer offers us.
My big question for summer is “How can you live each day with a bit of intention, letting a slice of summer in each day?”
What does summer mean to you? What piece of “summer nostalgia” can you let in to really feel like its summer in your everyday life? For me, it’s walking barefoot most of the time in the summer – obviously, when I’m not at work! It’s kicking off my shoes and feeling the grass beneath me, navigating the rocks going to my garden, and hopping on the hot pavement to water my plants outside my garden fence. I’m always so surprised how dirty my feet are at the end of the day! Yikes!!! It’s eating a popsicle on my back porch or watching the lightning bugs light up the sky while taking a slow late-night walk. It’s the smell of Coppertone sunscreen – it always takes me back to sitting on a beach, basking in the rays of sunshine.
Summer is so fleeting, yet so magical. The ability to be outdoors, to really experience nature in full bloom is pure magic itself! The last thing that I would like to happen is heading into Labor Day weekend and asking myself – “where did the summer go”? So, I challenge each of you – what piece of “summer” can you bring to your everyday life to intentionally let summer in? Please share your ideas with the other readers!
I recently have had to deal with a few bumps in my summer plans. My family was so looking forward to getting together for the July 4th holiday. A big family reunion was planned with our 7 month old grandson, all of our children, my brother’s family, even my 86 year old mother! We all managed to get together and then it happened… my husband started to get a sore throat, eventually testing positive for COVID, and then me testing positive 3 days later. There we were, feeling pretty terrible physically, and now sharing a space with our family, which was extremely worrisome as we had the potential to expose others to the virus, resulting in them getting sick, especially my baby grandson and my elderly mom. We immediately isolated, and the family reunion we were hoping to have got high jacked by COVID. The plans that we had worked on for months suddenly changed.
There were a lot of emotions and worries that immediately were swirling around in my head. he “Why Now” question. My husband and I have been working in health care for the past two years with COVID patients and never contracted the virus. I can’t tell you the numerous times we were both exposed, and somehow, we got it on the weekend of our planned family reunion. Yes, I was feeling angry and upset and let down and out of control… need I say more? Most of all, disappointed. I couldn’t hold our grandson the remainder of the time together, who I rarely see, who traveled from North Carolina to be with us. Yes, disappointment was here. On top of all of this, day four of my symptoms, I lost my taste and smell – I noticed this while I was eating jelly bellies, and couldn’t taste one jelly bean from another! Very strange and odd sensation, but I’m hopeful it will resolve itself soon.
I had to sit with these difficult emotions. I had to have time to process the disappointment and the wanting things to be different from what they were. That’s what makes us upset – resisting to what is happening in the moment. We had COVID and there was nothing we were going to do to change this. We had to isolate, which means we had to be away from our family during the family reunion.
During my time of processing and sitting with these difficult emotions, I thought of all of the others who had greatly suffered with COVID over the past 2 ½ years. Those patients that I’ve care for, those isolated and elderly in nursing facilities, who had their last days only with the medical staff and couldn’t see their families during lock down. I thought of how helpless their families must have felt being unable to say goodbye to their loved ones. I remembered all of the window visits I witnessed in the nursing facilities and how sad it was to see this happening. How love carried families through, despite what COVID did to separate them.
I thought about how grateful I was that although we felt pretty crappy, my husband and I had rather mild cases of COVID and we didn’t require hospitalization. We can still go for walks, enjoy nature together, and we had each other to isolate with. What a blessing that was…
I also am beyond grateful that so far… none of our family members contracted the virus from us. That was what I am most grateful for. It could have been devastating.
Our time of isolation is still going on as I write this, and yes – I am letting lots of pieces of summer in each day. I have a greater appreciation for being outside, using my other three senses (seeing, feeling, hearing) to take in nature, as my sense of taste and smell are still gone.
This is the world we live in now, a world full of uncertainty and not knowing what is coming our way, despite all the planning in the world that we do. It’s important to be with each moment, to recognize what strong emotions are coming to the surface and what we are resisting. What can we still find that is good even when life throws you a bunch of lemons?
The house that we rented for our family reunion has an abundance of wall hangings with positive sayings on them… a bit annoying, as each wall has a different spin on the same idea.
“Today is a good day for a good day”
“The Lake is my happy place”
“Relax, enjoy the view”
“Unwind, soak in the sun”
“Be Happy!”
Like I said, a bit annoying mostly because there are so many of them, but I guess they serve as a great reminder that we all have a choice as how we will react to what life throws out at us. I’m choosing gratitude and letting slivers of summer into each day. I’m looking forward to holding baby Jack once again, and grateful that we are recovering.
Happy Summer! Today is a good day for a good day… XOXOXOXO!