Summer

Summer is the season of abundance. The longest days, the warmest nights, the year at its fullest. It has always been the season of harvest beginning, of celebration, of the body wanting to be outside and in the light. Midsummer has been marked across cultures for thousands of years, the sun at its peak, the year beginning its slow turn back toward dark. In reality summer is also the season of too much. Too hot. Too busy. The pressure to be present, to enjoy it, to make the most of it while it lasts. There is an exhaustion that comes specifically from summer that nobody talks about, the weight of light and heat and the expectation of ease. What it does to the body. The heat slows things. Digestion, sleep, the pace of the day. The body wants to rest in the middle of the day and be active in the cooler hours, morning and evening. Fighting this is possible but not particularly sensible. Some of the oldest cultures in the hottest climates understood this and built it into the day. The mind in summer tends toward the surface. Reflection is harder in the heat. What comes more easily is presence, sensation, the immediate. This is not a lesser state. It is a different one. What you can do with it. Eat with the season, fruit, salad, things that need no cooking. Sleep with the windows open. Be outside in the early morning before the heat builds. Slow down in the afternoon without guilt. Mark midsummer in some way, even quietly, light a candle at dusk, sit outside until the stars come. Summer is generous. Receive it. Say this, at midsummer or whenever the season feels most itself: I am here. The light is here. I let this be enough.