Bright Days

It’s August and everywhere I look I see

Bright Days

filled with late summer flowers and plenty of green all around despite the drought in Minnesota. Coneflowers, black eyed susans, dahlias, and lilies are in glorious full bloom right now. And they are thriving despite the heat and humidity (or perhaps because of the heat and humidity?).

The Pond

August of another summer, and once again
I am drinking the sun
and the lilies again are spread across the water.
I know now what they want is to touch each other.
I have not been here for many years
during which time I kept living my life.
Like the heron, who can only croak, who wishes he
could sing,
I wish I could sing.
A little thanks from every throat would be appropriate.
This is how it has been, and this is how it is:
All my life I have been able to feel happiness,
except whatever was not happiness,
which I also remember.
Each of us wears a shadow.
But just now it is summer again
and I am watching the lilies bow to each other,
then slide on the wind and the tug of desire,
close, close to one another,
Soon now, I’ll turn and start for home.
And who knows, maybe I’ll be singing.
― Mary Oliver, Felicity

When August rolls around I realize that summer is quickly passing by. Here in Minnesota that means fall and then winter will soon roll around. It makes me love the summertime even more keenly, knowing how quickly it goes by. And though I would wish for shorter milder winters, there is nothing I would wish to change about the wonderful summers here in Minnesota.

How do I hold the impermanence of this moment with full joy? Sometimes it’s hard to stay in the fullness of the moment.

This morning, the sun endures past dawn. I realize that it is August: the summer’s last stand.”
― Sara Baume, A Line Made By Walking

So I spend my time drinking in the sun as often as I can and admiring the blowsy flowers of late summer. Their gaudy skirts tell me to soak in the beauty and to stay in the moment as the season will turn soon enough. Bright days are meant to be enjoyed and savored and sometimes remembered on a cold winter day.

May you walk in beauty.

A view of other side of the pond behind our house