What are your plans for this summer? Are your months full of activities, or are you taking each day one at a time, spending needed time soaking up the sun and warmer weather? Balance in each season matters for our psyche. It’s great to have plans for vacations, picnics, barbeques, trips to the zoo, parks, swimming pools, and being together with family and friends. It’s also great to take time to say no to invitations when you need to rest, sip a glass of wine on the patio, relax in the shade, or just get lost in a good book. Plan a break, a respite, or some solitude, often. What fills your cup back up?
We often want to do everything. We make lists of what we want to accomplish in a day, a week, a season. Crossing items off as we accomplish them gives us satisfaction, but also sometimes, fatigue. Remember there are only so many minutes in a day. You compare today to years ago when you were able to get more done in a day. Did you feel accomplished and proud, or tired and worn out? That was then, and this is today. You don’t have to do it all, and certainly not all in one day. Forget about having everything perfect, and remember you are doing your best. Learn to say no - to people, to items on your to-do list, to projects you have been avoiding.
Do you have people in your life who support you and make you a better version of yourself? Choose to be around those people. Share your time with the people who make you feel alive, go barefoot with you, and laugh with you. Doing too much can wear you out, cause stress, and affect you physically. Consider just being for a moment. Break your list down to those items you can look forward to. “Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.”
Schedule rest time. Read a book, take a walk in the woods, curl up for a short nap, call the kids or grandkids to say hi, or find your own way to rest. Take time just for you to recharge.
Enjoy today. There will always be something that needs to be done, that you want to do, people you need to see, events to attend. Plan ahead, but then trust your planning and relax, knowing that your plan is balanced, you can handle it, and enjoy what is on your list for today - whatever it is.
There are many things on my to-do list for this summer. It includes a visit to my mother, meeting our new granddaughter, waiting for our new grandson to be born, and hosting all of our children and grandchildren for a week at Lakeside. On our way to meet Maeve in New Hampshire, I have added a short trip to Acadia National Park in Maine to break up the journey. We will take time to enjoy the beauty of Acadia which will allow us to arrive at our son and daughter-in-law’s refreshed and energized, ready to be of help while we are there. It will be a special time with our two granddaughters and their parents. I appreciate my husband accepting that I needed to take more time for the drive.
Last weekend here in Ohio was beautiful. I took time away from my to-dos and walked in a nearby park by myself one afternoon. I said hello to the geese and savored the sounds of birds and bullfrogs as I walked around the pond. A mother goose hissed at me as I walked past her goslings, so worried I would bother them. It reminded me of being the mother of young children and how protective I had been. I walked by letting her know I was in my own world and wasn’t coming into hers. Once home I took a few minutes to sit and reflect on my walk, reminiscing about years gone by and feeling blessed for where I am today. Then I returned to my to-do list, refreshed and ready to tackle my next project. I hope you try to do the same this season. Keep the Balance. Then, as Nat King Cole sings, “you’ll wish that summer could always be here.”