Summer calls, dear readers. You answer.
What’s another word for summer? I say, “Fun!” We’ve thrown back the blankets of winter, lived through another fickle Virginia spring and now the glorious, in-full-bloom season of summer is upon us. We turn our backs to the indoors and step outside to feel the warmth that those beautiful summer days present to us. In summer we return to the earth. Some of my favorite summer things are the sound of ice in tea (the official beverage of all Southerners), the aroma of freshly cut grass and evenings with the songs of locusts everywhere. Mother Nature is at her very best with the pageantry of the great outdoors.
There’s another word for summer, too. “Family.” Summer is vacation time, beach time, picnic time and time for all those adventures that have become tradition to families when we can be together. From the earliest stages of planning to actually being there, vacations take us away from our routines and woes to other worlds of newness and discovery.
We live in the ideal area for summer pleasures. Beaches and waterways are everywhere we turn. Outdoor concerts, lawn parties, celebrations such as weddings and family reunions, visits from cherished friends or just long walks are summer callings.
So I wish you the very happiest of summers this year. There will be no boredom here, given the bounty of outdoor adventures awaiting you.
Go stock up on lemonade, find your flip-flops, pray that last year’s bathing suit still fits, grab a good book and spend the afternoon in a hammock or on a porch swing, listen to the songbirds, or just sit in the sand somewhere and watch the sun set over the water. It’s time to let yourself go.