Summer

It’s a beautiful summer day.  Today will be a hot one, but it is still early enough that the temps have not climbed to an uncomfortable state, and there is a refreshing breeze.  Our patio faces southwest, so it gets the morning shade, nice for sitting outside in the morning and enjoying God’s great outdoors. Knowing that we are to be under a heat dome for the next week or so, I decided to do some weeding in my planters and flower beds this morning. We have been having almost daily showers, so the ground is moist and loose, but the humidity is high.   I can’t say my back enjoyed the weeding as much as I did, for it is glorious here.  Flowers are erupting everywhere, the birds are singing, God is kissing me with the gentlest of breezes, lifting my hair and touching my cheeks. 

My prolonged gardening and weeding days are past.  I can do about five or ten minutes, and then I have to sit down, stretch my back muscles, and remind myself to relax.  I didn’t pay much attention to my body when I was younger.  I simply took it for granted, assuming that it would remain strong and healthy to serve me in whatever I wanted to do.  But these days, as my spine curves and my energy lags, I find myself sometimes wishing I’d done a better job of self-care.  But then I remind myself to be grateful for my curving back and lagging energy because that means I am still alive,  able to do most of the things I still want to do, if a great deal slower, and that I am still mentally alert and above ground.

As I look around me at the green trees dancing in the breeze, purple and red and orange and white flowers in my flower beds reaching toward the sun, listening to the chirping of birds, I shove aside my worries about the state of the world and focus on this precious moment.  I am reminded of my brother-in-law, who died recently, and how he was a master of living in the now, finding delight in each day and each relationship.  He has moved on,  taking his joy with him, but we who remain are left to carry on in his stead. His death reminds me of other loved ones who have died and left a vacuum in my life yet their deaths also remind me to never take this moment for granted,  for as the Psalmist says, “we are like grass, here today and gone tomorrow, but the goodness of the Lord lasts forever.”