Summertime
“I just don’t want to do anything”. “I don’t have any energy lately”. Comments I keep hearing as we journey deeper into summer’s heat in Texas.
The most difficult challenge for most of us is daring to NOT do! The energy of spring keeps us going, looking at the creativity we are capable of, seeing the vitality of the fruits of our labors. But summer? Well, that is a very different lesson.
It is hard for those of us who are not attuned to the seasonal changes. We know it is summer, but if we are not vacationing or staycationing, we keep on doing all that we just can’t seem to release. We complain about the heat as if it was our enemy. But honestly, it is a gift!
Even the cats know the hot summer sun slows down their interest in running around the back yard. Our sometimes indoor/outdoor cat wants to be outside at night, but wants to be inside during the day to catch up on his sleep. I can’t imagine him feeling like a failure or wimp because of his desire to slow down and be in our air conditioned home each day.
But we adults are quite a different story. We keep striving toward some goal that makes us work, some unwritten need to keep doing because that is what we do! I know, there are things to do, people to see and miles to go before we can sleep, but is that the energy of summer.
There is a spiritual invitation that summer offers. It is the invitation Jesus offered his disciples who had been busy working: ‘Come away to a quiet, solitary place and rest awhile’ MK 6:31 That is the spirit of summer!
- Step back from the work you typically engage in. Take time to live in each moment rather than anticipating the next one. This means being present to what IS in contrast to futuristic thinking of what you need to do to get someplace where you are not.
- Find rest for your soul. The struggles, the tensions and fears, the anxieties of our lives keep us restless. In the summer we just don’t have the energy to keep it all going. So if we could learn to step back, we could find a center of energy that is refreshing and soul restoring. We would discover the true meaning of rest.
- Discover leisure. We are amazingly creative in the ways we provide nurturing for others. Summer invites us to pause and receive nurturing through the life we have worked so hard to provide. Read a book that has been sitting on your shelf, talk with a friend enjoying the spaciousness of the moment. Have a leisurely meal in the silence of your home.
My hope and prayer for each of us is that we will be, open and attentive to the Spirit within this summer month discovering new dimensions of God’s Light and Love.
