First Day of Summer

Slept in the camper in the backyard last night, the blinking of fireflies outside my window as I fell asleep. Awakened at dawn to the singing of a variety of birds welcoming the first day of Summer. If your summer is like mine, it is scheduled, busy, crowded with to much to do and to much to see. It seems to be the American way to take summer to seriously. Po Brosnson, in the latest issue of Time asks "Why do Americans have to work so hard at taking it easy?" He describes something called "Active Leisure". "Anytime you exhaust yourself trying to relax, that's active leisure.....We Americans are so active in our leisure that we commonly complain we need a vacation from our vacations We leave home tired; we come back exhausted." You can read his column in its entirety by clicking here.
What happened to the summers I remember from my childhood? Those "lazy, hazy days of summer". This prayer by Ted Loder, from "Guerrillas of Grace", is my daily mantra this season as I live in the tension between responsibilities and what God calls "sabbath time".

Let Me Live Grace-fully

Thank you, Lord, for this season of sun and slow motion,

of games and porch sitting, of picnics and light green fireflies

on heavy purple evenings; and praise for slight breezes.

It's good, God, as the first long days of your creation.

Let this season be for me

a time of gathering together the pieces into which my busyness

has broken me.

O God, enable me now to grow wise through reflection,

peaceful through the song of the cricket,

recreated through the laughter of play.

Most of all, Lord,

let me live easily and grace-fully for a spell,

so that I may see other souls deeply,

share in a silence unhurried,

listen to the sound of sunlight and shadows,

explore barefoot the land of forgotten dreams and shy hopes,

and find the right words to tell another who I am.

As for me, I will sleep in the backyard in the middle of a busy week and pretend for a moment that I am deep in the Adirondack woods. I will share a soft ice cream cone with a friend on a hot summer afternoon before rushing back to the office and I will run barefoot with my grandson through the sprinkler on a humid evening. Ahh, Summer!