Of all the ways the world tilts, I like it best when it’s pointed toward the sun.
Summer has always been my season. It stands for freedom–freedom from school, from clothes, from schedules, from normal. When autumn arrives I’m ready to return to the arms of my cozy sweaters and comfortable schedules, but while summer lasts we play hard and try to soak up every day.
I love that summer can be equally glorious whether you spend it mostly at home or travel far and wide. Usually it’s a collection of simple little pleasures that make the season feel so abundant.
Beautiful things like summertime deserve poetry, but I lose my train of thought on lazy, hazy days like these and can only compose columns; I’m one of those common list-makers, remember? So let me “ode to summer” with a list…40 simple summer pleasures to soak up the season.
No summer is complete without these things, and although each year is different, I try to experience as many of them as I can!
1. The fireflies you catch out of the corner of your eye
2. Entering an air-conditioned house after being outside
3. Food sizzling on the grill
4. Ice cracking in your glass
5. Tan lines between your fingers and toes
6. Smelling cut lemons and making lemonade
7. Freezing summer fruit for the winter ahead
8. That first glimpse of the ocean
9. The smell of freshly-mown grass
10. Homemade ice cream, eaten on the porch
11. Kaleidoscopic colours everywhere you look
12. Jumping off the deep end
13. Bonfires and s’mores (I like ’em burnt!)
14. Watching dolphins break the surface
15. Picking berries, and juice on your fingers
16. Sleeping in
17. Cicadas in chorus
18. Fireworks and the sulfur smell that lingers
19. Callouses on your feet
20. Big chunks of time for reading
21. Toenail polish and sandals
22. Evening breeze
23. Racing to finish your popsicle before it melts
24. Witnessing the sunset……and waiting for the Green Flash
25. Drying off in the sun after swimming
26. Gathering flowers to bring indoors
27. Cool walks on the edges of the day
28. Feeling the creek wash over your feet
29. Being bored.
30. Natural highlights in your hair
31. Road trips to anywhere
32. Cutting fresh herbs
33. A shower after a day at the beach
34. Summer weddings
35. Eating popcorn inside on a rainy day
36. Spontaneous outings with your people
37. The sound of the zipper when you crawl inside your tent
38. Buying a new dress
39. Watching afternoon storms roll in
40. Pie
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