There is something special about Summer. It’s warm. There’s an ease to everything which feels unique to this stretch of time. The light is abundant. Mornings are early and gentle, evenings linger and spool with the sound of crickets and the aw inspiring flickers of lightening bugs. There’s a lushness to life, vibrancy and rest tucked inside all of Summer’s pockets. I truly love this season.
When the year began, Winter was much longer than I remembered. It was hard. Harder than most might imagine. The length of it’s cold days hurt my little hands and feet, my little body fatigued and tight. It was almost too much to bear and I’ve nearly teared up when I recounted it. Perhaps that’s why Summer is a short breath of time when I consciously slow to soak in with as much presence as possible all that it is. Taking the time to leave my front door and walk around the block whenever I have ten minutes to spare. Spending five or more minutes in my garden simply touching leaves and seeing who’s ripened on the vine and ready to pick. Windows streaming with light, I stand in the kitchen and relish the creations I can make bursting with flavors and textures so bright and all right from my backyard beyond the pane.
Summer is a gift in every way I can express. A gift I will not take for granted considering the start of the paragraph above. And because of the stored ache in my body left by Winter’s sting, it is ever apparent to me the necessity of remembering this Season so I may draw upon it once the day comes where sandals and lightweight clothes must hibernate as well as I.
Maybe it’s the learned yogi in me, or maybe it’s my Christ-centered heart who knows that mindfulness and faith have a lot in common in helping us through the seasons of life we need it most. They both must be cultivated within the deepest recesses of us and stored so deep there would become a well of their truths and treasure we need during the times our surroundings run dry.
There will always be Winter. There will always come pain. There will always be moments where our brain-patterns kick into gear, anxiety wins and renewing our minds feels like it’s worlds away. It’s in those moments we must draw upon what we remember, more than what we feel. Summer is a gift. The more we can mindfully linger on it’s treasures, the more readily it will stay with us when we need it dearly. This is my hope.
As with all journey’s of faith, we must learn to have a pillar to rely on when what makes our believing easy goes dim. As with all mindfulness practices, we must have a history of training the mind and heart to focus on the breath to calm the body and let-go of the thoughts that may not be true or may not lead us to places we don’t want to live in our mind so we can do the same when we need to.
So it’s my hope that the same truth of faith and mindfulness might be true with Summer. I want this Summer-heart year round. Yes, I know. I know. I cannot soak in it’s warmth always, it’s bounty, it’s elongated days of light. But I can remember the practices I’ve cultivated in this season and hopefully bring them with me safely in my heart through the months to come. I can remember that just like Winter, Summer always comes too. And the God who renews, reawakens what’s dead, clears away what doesn’t help us most, and is the source of all comfort is right with us each and every moment of each and every season.
May we all, in the healthiest seasons, look around us and ask what rhythms of grace of nourishing to our souls and then mindfully practice them in all seasons of need. May we wake up and be alert to all that is good and true so we can store it away deep within our souls. May we learn to create the surroundings that care for our Spirits, and maybe even more so, may we learn to cultivate the inner environments, relationships and practices that will become our pillars and pathways back to our Summer-hearts. God is here. God is in every season. There is a time for everything. Truth and Grace, Hope and Faith do not change or die. They may get lost along the way, they may hide for a season, but they remain. May we get so acquainted with them in the moments they are more than apparent that we can more readily find our paths back to them… even and especially when Summer must fade to fall.
Grace & Peace friends.
Summer Heart
