​When I was in school I dreamed about Summer all year long.  My friends and I would spend those long Summer days exploring the “woods” around our houses and hang out in the backyards of ours and neighbors houses.  It was a time for the joy of just being a child of the universe and our imaginations allowed us to explore every inch of it!  The one feeling that lingers from those long days of Summer was joy!
 
Joy is one of the lost treasures of childhood.  But this joy was not taken away from us by adulthood, it was given up under the misguided impression that we were trading it for happiness of a different, more grown-up kind.  I will grant that the joy of the child and the adult can be quite different in type, but it is quite similar in the consequences.  
 
Joy means experiencing great pleasure or happiness.  It provides us with the ability to look forward to our day.  It opens our eyes to wonder and our hearts to laughter.  It reveals a world that is more than responsibilities and routines.  It awakens our spirit to the unsought but nonetheless welcome surprises that come with exploring our world.  Joy reminds us that each day is a gift that cries out to be unwrapped.  Even the bows and ribbons invite us to playfully experience joy!
 
I hope that you will do your best to find Joy for the next few months.  If you have the opportunity to travel, allow joy to be your closest travel companion.  If you are unable to travel, invite joy into your home and allow it to introduce you to its friends; hope, surprise, wonder, and spontaneity.  When we were children we found joy in a child’s summer.  But now, as adults, may we find even greater joy in our grown-up summers.  May joy surround your days and fill your life this Summer.

​EnJoy  -- For the next few months draw pleasure or happiness from these days.  Drink in the joy of the sunshine and summer visitors.  Feast on the hours spent contemplating the stars at night and the clouds by day.  Breathe deeply from the gentle breeze that carries the very fragrance of Summer blooms.  Allow Summer joy to infuse your daily living and fill your soul.  But do not stop there.
 
InJoy  -- Allow that inner glow of pleasure or happiness to warm your memories.  Allow that joy to awaken the voices of family and friends whose voices have fallen silent.  Savor moments of remembrances that speak to who you are and the roots from which you grew.  Cherish the abundance of Summer joy as it carries you to that inner sanctuary where you rediscover all that is good about your life.  But do not linger even here, there is more you can do.
 
ReJoy  - Let that pleasure or happiness overflow into the people and places around you.    In doing so you with ReJoy your life and offer others the gift of joy as well.  Plant those flowers that the world may be filled with color.  Grow those vegetables that others may be sustained in their journey.  Smile with the stranger and awaken joy in their soul.  Give your family and friends the gift of time and attention as you share the precious gift of life and love.
 
EnJoy, InJoy, and ReJoy the pleasure and happiness of Summer!

Simple Tips to Enjoy Summer
 
A Few More Tips
 
An Unconventional Look at Joy Living

​One of the gifts of Summer is the opportunity for reflection.  Just as a reflector behind a candle throws the light out into our world, a little Summer’s reflection shines a new light on who we are and who we can become.
 
Several years ago Marlene and I returned to Yellowstone National Park.  We made the auto tour around the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and came to Inspiration Point.  On a previous trip it had been closed due to a rock slide.  I remembered seeing it as a child roughly 50 years ago and so we stopped.  Walking the trail brought memories of my Mom, Dad, and Brother.  I remembered navigating that narrow trail with sheer drops just a couple of feet away on both sides.  I remember looking off the end of the trail, after been teased by my brother the whole way, and seeing the Falls far in the distance.
 
This time, however, the trail stopped short.  Apparently the rocks had shifted in the last half century and the narrowest part of the trail was gone.  The Falls could no longer be seen from the end of trail.  It was a bit of a disappointment.  Fortunately, I had my memories.  They allowed me to walk all the way out to the end of the trail that was no longer there.
 
Every Summer our mind has an opportunity to reflect on familiar as well as unwalked paths.  By revisiting places from our past and exploring new places, we are inspired to imagine or re-imagine ourselves.  Memories, both made and in-the-making, remind us that there is more to us that the day-to-day paths that consume most of our lives each year.  Who we were comes alive and reflects on our present lives.  It also shines on to the future that awaits us.  Reflections such as these help us we discover and re-discover who we are and who we are meant to be.  

​Let your mind wander, freed from the familiar paths of your daily routine.  Travel in body and  in mind.  Travel old roads long forgotten and discover new roads not yet explored.
 
Let them lead you to remembering past places, people, and experiences.   Nurture those memories as old companions.   Invite them in and sit with them for a while.  Allow your mind to flesh them out and listen/observe the story they tell.
 
But do not forget to build new memories.  Stretch your mind and surround the possibilities of your present circumstances.  Go where your heart and mind leads.  Step out and share your explorations with your companions in the journey.  Expand and grow into the future that awaits you.
 
Above all, reflect the light of the Summer into the days ahead that they also may be filled with the joy of remembering.

30 Summer Memories Every Kid Should Have
 
The Wanderlust Mind
 
Remembering the Future
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​Summer is the season to engage life.  I do not mean like a promise to marry or engage an enemy.  It is more like engaging the clutch while driving a “stick.”
 
When I got my learner’s permit at age fifteen, my older brothers took on the responsibility of teaching me how to drive.  No one had an automatic transmission so I had to learn to drive the stick.  I was taught that when starting the car, disengage the clutch, press on the gas, the turn the key.  Keep your foot on the clutch, allow the engine to warm up.  When ready, shift into low, release the brake slowly while pressing down on the gas with the same foot.  Then engage the clutch!  It was all as easy to explain as it was to write.  Unfortunately, you know what happened the first time I tried.
 
The hardest part is engaging the clutch.  Too fast and you leap forward and kill the engine.  Too slow and you sit there while your brother yells at you to quit “wearing out” the clutch.  It took practice and a learned “touch” to engage the clutch and get the car rolling.
 
Rolling into Summer requires that we carefully engage our “clutch” to get our body rolling into Summer. 
 
Summer Sun – Use sunscreen and start with low doses of sunshine.  Avoid the sun between 11:00 AM and 4:00 PM.  Even after building up your exposure, continue and replenish the sunscreen and wear a hat with a high SPF rating.  You will avoid the inconvenience of a sunburn and hopefully a later case of skin cancer.
 
Summer Activities – It is important to pace our way into a full scale assault on the Summer.  The Marathon Runner does not go from a life on the couch to the finish line in a few days.  Summer activities may require that we use muscles and joints that have not been regularly used in quite some time.  We may be tempted to pick up where we were 9 months ago and not account for the loss of muscle memory or the safety protocols.  Start slow and press yourself forward all Summer.
 
Summer Explorations – For many, Summer is the one season where they can get out and do things that are not generally available the rest of the year.  Travel, new outdoor hobbies/experiences, or time to lay back and read become options when school is out and the weather cooperates.  Claim the opportunity and do something different.  Try something new.  Read something different.  Go somewhere you have never been.
 
Summer Schedules – Avoid over programming your Summer.  Let the Summer invigorate you  not drain you of energy.  Pace yourself and end the Sumer more relaxed and healthier than when you began.
 
Summer Eating and Drinking – Lastly watch the diet.  It is very easy to stumble into eating more calories and drinking more alcohol than during the rest of the year.  Even if your weight does not show your over-indulging during the Summer, you may pay the price in the Fall.  As your activity decreases you may not slow down your eating and drinking.  That may be when the weight will begin to show.
 
Engage your clutch for these and other Summer activities and enjoy them.  Engage slowly, push yourself forward and when it is time to rest, disengage and let your foot off the gas.  Roll into Summer and enjoy yourself.  Celebrate the season with your body.

​A Calendar Journal
One way to help yourself into and through the Summer is simply to keep a calendar of your activities.  Write a one or two word description of you did on the date on a calendar by your bathroom mirror or at your bedside.  These words will help you be mindful of your pace and frequency of your activities.  This gentle reminder may prove invaluable as you look ahead and roll your way into a great Summer.

A Sun-safe Summer
 
Summer Health Hazards
 
Creating a  Family Summer Schedule

​Generally, these self-care notes are directed toward difficult circumstances or situations that require us to be extra vigilant in our care.  But for the next few weeks I will focus on an opportunity we have to celebrate our lives.  We have the opportunity to claim the care provided to us simply by living our lives in the Summer Sun.  We begin this journey with a toast, “L’Chaim”!
 
L’Chaim is a Yiddish toast that is generally translated “to life!”  It is not usually the toast of one person.  Instead, someone may invite their family and friends to gather around, lift their glass and everyone would shout “L’Chaim”!  It is a communal affirmation that life is good, a gift to be celebrated and enjoyed.  It is a way of celebrating the “giftness” of life.
 
While every season has its challenges, Summer stands for something far more liberating.  We can all remember those summers when we ran out of our school doors and didn’t look back.  We may remember vacations, or trips to the beach, or days exploring our neighborhood with friends.  Summer represents a respite from the day-to-day responsibilities of growing up and becoming a contributing member of society.  Yes, we did spend weeks at scout camp or church camp, but even these were heavily spiced with the joy of just having fun!  Summer was the annual gift that the world gave us so that we could celebrate life, “LChaim”!
 
Once we grew into that responsible adult we began to yield much of that Summer back to world.  At best, we would claim a couple of weeks and perhaps a couple of weekends for Summer, but the rest of the time was spent “adulting”.  We would overwork getting ready for vacation, hurry through our two weeks, only to face an extraordinary pile of work when we returned to our desk.  Summer did not seem worth the trouble.  Our relationship to Summer began to change and, for many, it was just another season, only hotter!
 
But, if we pay attention, there is still something of Summer in our lives.  We want to be outside even though we will be properly shaded.  We want to spend time at the water even if it is only the neighborhood pool.  We wake up a little later hoping to be on time because the Summer Traffic should be lighter than usual.  We fire up the grill.  We enjoy corn on the cob and fresh cobbler with homemade ice cream.  These are all remnants of a season of joy when life was something more than taking care of our responsibilities.  With each one, we raise the glass of our lives, look up, and shout “L’Chaim”.  

​Make a toast to Summer every day.  Get in touch with the child who wants to play.  Give them a little time each day to kick off their shoes and socks and run through the grass.  Give them permission to see the castles growing in the clouds every afternoon.   Let them run through a Summer shower and make a splash in the puddles.  Summer is a time to feel the liberating power of sunshine to awaken our soul, inspire our mind, and warm our bodies.   Allow gratitude its time in the Sun!  Make a toast to life, your life!  “L’Chaim”!

The Best Ways to Enjoy Summer
 
Kids Enjoying Summer Around the World
 
A Whole Summer of International Celebrations
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