How To Capture Summer

Posted on July 15, 2011

SPICE:  It’s summer.  Right?  You know, it’s hard for me to really feel it.  Monday through Friday, my day is spent indoors, in air-conditioning and florescent lighting.  I arrive to the office before it’s very warm and I leave with only a few precious waking hours left.  Those few hours are filled with a commute, preparation and eating of dinner, maybe a couple of errands…so where is my summer?  Do you have this same feeling, Sugar?

SUGAR:  I sure do!  I try to live in the moment and be as fully aware as possible but that lasts about 2 nano seconds. So how can we make summer last or at least enjoy the day we have today?

SPICE:  You’ve got it right.  It is the moments that we capture that create our summer. It’s not like being a child anymore, where it’s an “all consuming” thing.  You’ve got to find it yourself as an adult. So, I realized that the best way to feel your summer is to use all your senses.

Let’s go through them, ok? 

The first way is through the SOUNDS of summer.  I love having all the windows open in my house.  I hear the birds early in the morning, a lawnmower; someone’s dog barking…it’s nice.  And at night, I hear the coyote’s! Even the sound of the fan I have running in my kitchen is wonderful.  It was my Grandmothers and she kept it in her kitchen. You know the kind?  Those old metal ones that have the completely open cages for the blades?  It has a hum sound that takes me back to summer days spent on their dairy farm in Alabama.

The next way is through the TASTES of summer. Summer tastes to me are a cold watermelon, some lemonade or iced tea, popsicles, burgers and hotdogs cooked on the grill and roasted marshmallows over a campfire.

To capture the tastes of summer, think back to summer as a kid and remember what you ate! Maybe, go get ice cream from the local stand after dinner.  Then eat it on the picnic benches they have. 

Another way is through the SMELLS of summer. Summer smells for me include freshly cut grass and the way the world smells after it rains and sunscreen.  I like to drive home with my car windows down so I can smell outside.  So often our lives are closed up:  Our houses, our cars, our buildings.  It’s nice to smell the outside.  Even those annoying smells like a skunk. Think hard, I bet you can remember the smells of a childhood summer!

Next is through the SIGHTS. Some of the sights of summer may be a sprinkler spray creating a mini rainbow, sundresses and flip flops and carnival lights. 

Or daylilies blooming on the side of the road and hanging flower baskets.  Sit on your porch or front steps – look around. 

Lastly, bring back the FEELING of summertime. How?  Sweat.  This comes back to what I was saying about air-conditioning.  Forty hours per week of my summertime is spent in artificial temperature.  How sad is that?  I want to feel that heat.  I want to experience it.  Otherwise, my summer is 75 degrees.  NO!  So, drive with your windows down.  Feel the air.  Stick your arm out and make air roller coasters with it.  Sleep with the windows open, a fan on and a sheet only. 

Capture your summer with the sights, sounds, tastes, smell and feeling. Share your experiences with others.  Help them capture their summer, too.  It goes by way too fast.  In the words of Ferris Bueller:  If you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it. 

Tell us – how do you capture your summer?

Categories: Creative Inspiration, General Health Care: Educational Series