I Remember Summer ... part 1

Today, June 21, 2010, at 7:28am the start of summer. Once again as it has 59 times before.

The day's start is picture perfect. A gentle breeze is moving the leaves, the sun is peaking through the trees and making its marks on the lawn in the early morning silence. Flowers are in full bloom. The birds are gathering at the feeders, a chipmunk has packed his cheeks with sunflower seeds, the squirels are darting about. Everywhere you look you see the touch of His blessings. I am thankful not only for these moments of grace but for the fact that I took the moment to see. Sometimes (most times?) I just jump into the day "unawares". Glad not today.

I am lazy today, following an unusually very busy week last week. My weeks often are scheduled with 3-4 days of work and this and that and mostly that! I am grateful for today's quiet.

I close my eyes and for a moment I remember summer...

My earliest memory (I had to be under 3) is very short, very sweet ... I remember sitting on a wooden fence, I can picture the fence, with my mother opening pea pods. They were in a brown paper bag. I don't like peas, never have, but that day I was eating the round green peas and I can still remember how sweet they tasted. I can feel the sun's rays and warmth. That's it, nothing more, nothing less. I know that it was in Dobbs Ferry because that was where I lived. I believe it was down the street from our house, actually there was a field on the side of the house to our left ... there was the fence. I'm not sure where we had gotten the peas. It feels good to remember that moment, there's a peace there I can feel. Seems sort of strange for a little one to hold this in memory but its a memory that seems to pop up every so often over the years.

Then I remember summer days of my elementary school years, in the mid to late 1950's ...

School was out, the days were lazy,the katydids sang loudly at night.

Hours were spent absorbed in Nancy Drew books.

Tetherball was a great game, leaving broken or sprained fingers for most of the summer,

ahhhh, it was great!

We played baseball and soccer and a two month long game of monopoly.

Talk about bailouts, we kept tally of the money borrowed to keep us in the game.

During the summer no one was ever out, the same game played from July to

the end of August with the winner being the one who owed the least.

It was 6 neighborhood kids who built towns

and cities, these also remained all summer, making

them come to life. These were built with

lincoln logs and building bricks (these were likeLego's only made of wood).

It was dragging dining room chairsoutside and lining them up along a tree line

and pretending it was a passenger train.

It was playing outside all day, everyday and

by nightfall waiting for the next day to play again.

It was fun.

It was carefree.

It was a lace curtain blowing in the gentle breeze from an open window

It was a special time, a special place.