Why I Love Summer

Shortly after I burned up the blender making milk shakes for Teen Angel’s post wisdom tooth extraction last night, I looked out the patio doors and saw the beginnings of what I thought might be a beautiful sunset in the making. I’ve been too busy to chase sunsets in recent weeks. The upside to that is that I haven’t had any chigger bites this summer since I haven’t been sitting in the weeds. The downside is that I’ve missed some really pretty sunsets.


I grabbed my camera, slid on my ratty old flip flops sitting by the back door and hopped on the golf cart. I zipped to the back of the subdivision where a lovely little lake sits on private property. It’s a great place to take pictures, and the owner doesn’t mind if you park along the edge and take in the view. I laughed when I pulled in because one of my neighbors had already beaten me there. She stops there regularly for sunset pictures, and posts beautiful photos on Facebook all of the time.

“You got here at just the right time,” she shouted. “Good,” I replied and got into position. The neighborhood dogs jumped and splashed around us while Shirley and I clicked away and chatted, without looking away from our viewfinders, about family and work. A gorgeous sunset blazed across the sky, wowing us with its oranges and purples. “Look at it!” “Ooh, isn’t it great?” “It’s better than I expected!” And on and on until the sky faded into a blue that turned to dusk very quickly. The show was better than we had anticipated.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy photographing sunsets and trying to catch that perfect shot while the light rapidly changes. It was great to share it with someone who feels the same. When it finally got too dark to shoot, Shirley pedaled her bicycle along the golf cart’s headlights, while we headed home and chatted some more. As I waved goodbye and drove through the breeze, I saw the flashes of fireflies and heard the musical sound of children’s laughter in the night air.

At home, Hubby and the dog were in the front yard, so they hopped on and we rode around the subdivision for a little while, enjoying the break from the day’s busy-ness. Again, there was laughter from neighborhood kids, and I was taken back to a time some forty years ago when I ran barefoot through cool grass with a jar full of lightning bugs and played games like tag and hide and seek until bedtime. Memories of evenings spent chasing cousins, eating watermelon or twirling hot sparklers. And falling asleep with the knowledge that tomorrow would bring another day of delicious vacation.

It was a wonderful time-out in a hectic day. It probably lasted only about forty minutes, but it seemed like a couple of hours. I went inside the house feeling very satisfied with life and a little disappointed that this grownup couldn’t stay up late because of work the next day. For just a little while last night I forgot about chores that needed to be done and simply enjoyed the beauty of a sinking sun, warm breezes and the simple sounds of carefree children at play. It is the song of summer, and it plays in my heart like a fine concerto.