Summer Things

Summer is the time for reunions and weddings and maintenance projects and tourists and travel and vacations. It’s also the time for morning coffee on the patio. And for soaking up the sunshine. And campfire gatherings with the kids and grand-kids.

This summer we have our house listed. If you wonder how that affects our summer, I’ll tell you. It keeps the house tip-top because we never know when a showing might happen. I love the having a constantly tidy house part. I don’t love the unknowns of showing and selling. It’s a feeling of vulnerability and loss of privacy that I’ll be glad to be done with. Plus, there’s the possibility of this going on for awhile.

But we wait, keeping busy. I thought about it again today how precious are the simple things of charcuterie on front porches with friends. And rare! Fleeting, too. But then there’s heaven ahead. So the couple times per summer that we get to create lovely times with our people allow us a glimpse of good things to come. No boundaries of time and space and chores to be done.

My List of July Treasured Times

• Flying with five 15-year-olds for boys camp to Idaho. Most of them had flown before and knew how to navigate. I am sure they could have figured it out on their own, but then I would have missed out. The kiosk spat out six luggage tags and six boarding passes as soon as I figured out how to ask it to do so. Getting through security was a normal process of some of us walking right through and others of us having to circle back with shoes and belt for recheck. Some one had a flashlight in his carry-on instead of tucked in his check-in, so we had to wait for security to dig through the bag to verify. Let me say right here that boys are among my favorite people. They talk about a wide variety of things among themselves and get along easily. They are much simpler in their emotions and opinions than us girls. This is relaxing and comforting to me.
• Lavender harvest with Mom and Francis yielded a dozen or so tied bundles. My dad saw them, “I would put one of those in each my vehicles, please.”
• Brad and Sierra set up a long white table in the yard for lunch on Sunday and sat 15 friends and family around it complete with flowers, fresh buns, grilled chicken. An angel food cake made the rounds followed by a blackberry sauce made of nature’s own blackberries picked in the sunshine the week before. But the thing that I enjoyed the most was the lovely moment of a gracious table on the lawn spread with food for our own beautiful loved ones all around.
• Anytime that I get to spend with my own person is great. Last night we got in the old work truck and ran an errand for his work late at night. Stony Hill Road is long and stony. The woods trail off of Stone Hill is long and narrow and curving and bumpy, especially after dark at night. But I got to see his work world for a minute and to just ride along.

One of my friends suggested today that we could be sweeter in our relationships if we didn’t have so much in put of media and news. Just be off those places. Yes, that could help. But with the subtraction of things, one must intentionally fill that space with rest or a good book or worthwhile work. Right? What are your goals for being better with your people around you?

One of my goals is to think with clarity. I dislike feeling confused and in limbo with waiting for the next step. I feel uncertain and apologetic, somehow. I must remember that God is never confused about what’s next for us. He actually has this summer in waiting all planned out. So that clears up a lot for me, as long as I stay in that place of peace in my heart. And out of my own head, where doubts arise and fears dismay.