zen and the art of summer

We three- Jack, Maxwell, me- sit outside together in the morning brightness. Jack, on the patio, in the shade. Me, on the patio, in the sun, a little further out. Maxwell, in the grass, in the shade, furthest out of all. I sit in the sun for hmmm ten minutes, maybe less, then move to the steps in the shade. The animals knew it was too hot to begin with. I sit in the sun {initially} because it is probably the only time today- the only time for the next couple of days- when it will be cool enough to sit there.

Yesterday I sat in a field at the park in the shade, undone by the heat {for the time being}. Looking around me, I noticed literally dozens of blue dragonflies flitting about among the patches of dried grass left by the lawn mowers. They sat still long enough for me to look closely, then buzzed off to greet others. Two flew together, ran into a third, split into singles. They flew parallel. They flew alone. I was- stunned? pleased? rapt?- and kept watching. This going on around me shook me out of my summertimefunkwiththeheat and reminded me {again and again and again I see the beauty in all seasons but have the hardest time with the heat of the summer, even as the beauty is obvious} of the many ways of summer.

I thought about picking blueberries in my front yard last year in the 100 degree heat, drinking water, wearing a hat, not-staying-out-too-long-but-long-enough to save the berries from the heat and focusing on what it felt like to be in that heat rather than pushing it away or hiding from it as I so often do. I don't do this often, so fragile to the heat do I feel. But sometimes- some times- I will embrace it. I will sit in it, like today, in the morning, with the cool breeze tricking my skin. It feels at once the heat from the sunshine, not yet fully warmed up for the day, and the cool of the wind. I reach for a fleece even as I know it will be too much just now to put on. And I think about this summertime feeling, of bringing a sweater, but never really using it, except indoors in the air conditioning. I let goosebumps rise on my skin in the cool air more readily than I would during the other seasons. There must be something to this, the knowledge that it will warm up, it is warming up, and the goosebumps will fade away at last.

And of course there is so much to love about summer. It ranks first among favorite seasons. There is the heat. The time outside. The light. The greenery. The growth. Abundance. I walked home from the park yesterday, bowing my head to the powerful sun and thinking about tomatoes. Tomatoes, after all, love the heat. And I very much look forward to my first fresh tomato of the summer. It can't be long now. It looks as if the sun and heat are here to stay. I repeat a little mantra in my head as I reach home, "Tomatoes love the heat. Tomatoes love the heat." And then I enter my house and bless it for the air conditioning within.