Summertime....and other chapters in life
In the famous song of George and Ira Gershwin entitled 'Summertime', the lyrics tout that summertime is 'when the livin' is easy'. What comes to my mind in regards to 'easy livin' in the Summer is my childhood. It amazes me how the brain can go into deja vu mode by a mere scene, smell, sound, activity...so many different ways we travel back in time by remembering. And how my mind wandered back to easy livin' in the Summer while I was out riding my bike on the rail trail this past week. It was nearing sundown, there was a warm breeze, and I was flying by open farm fields as I went down the trail. Flash back! It hit me that quick, and I was about 9 or 10 again, playing in the field next to my home, running around catching fireflies and putting them in a mason jar. There they came to their demise (they never lived through the night it seemed, no matter how many holes we put in the top of the jar lid), but they provided a little blurb of light and something to watch while we laid in bed. This memory led to other ones..... sleeping every night in a sleeping bag on my brother's floor with fans blasting and Ben, Drew, and I laughing for hours about the stupidest things (or about each other).....T-ball and baseball games all Summer....weeks of swimming lessons..... hours upon hours mowing grass.....weeding the garden and having dirt clod wars with my brothers....planting, watering, and weeding 500 pumpkin plants for Mr. Boese so he could give the bus kids at his church a halloween pumpkin.....swimming in our pond with the neighbors....riding on big logs and calling them 'alligators'.....bike rides.....week as a camper at Barakel.....VBS....Tigers baseball and trading baseball cards.... Yep, it's amazing how just one memory can trickle down and welcome in many more. Somehow, those chapters in life seem to close without you really stopping to take notice, and then in retrospect, you see how they were such good chapters in the story of your life.... and how even in remembering, they bring richness to life right now. Those old chapters close, and new ones...different,but good ones...open up. Childhood summers led to summers working at Camp Barakel, and missions trips, and making new friends, and going to new places, and learning more about myself, God, and my place in His world. As I think about how there seem to be certain chapters of my life right now that are closing, and not quite being sure of all of the "where's/when's/how's/who's" details that will open up in the next chapter, I'm beginning to realize even more how much faith is to be lived out in all ways for those 'in between' spaces, when you're not quite sure what to do next in between the old chapter and the unfolding of the new one. And, I appreciate more fully the exhortations "Be still and know that I am God", and "trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."
I didn't really plan on using this post in a 'serious vein', but I guess I've rabbit-trailed once again. Actually, I was hoping to hear back from people regarding their Summertime memories as kids; thought it'd be interesting to hear what your highlights were, as well as encourage parents to make the best of the time they have with their kids during those 3 LOOONG months of Summer when, for the kiddos at least, the livin' is easy-schmeezy.
posted by Sarah Glupker @ 7:02 PM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
Somet things that stand out in my mind:
Stained feet from the Mulberry bush in our front yard, summer rains and playing in the puddles, reading and reading. Popsicles, riding in the tractor with my Dad.
Great post :)
I have a few, ok more than a few, but I'll only list a few.
I loved going for evening bike rides after dinner with the whole family. I think we have been all over Saginaw on our bikes. It was just plain fun!!
Also swimming!! We would literally swim ALL day. Mom wouldn't even make us get out to eat lunch. She would just set it along the pool. We always had a steady stream of friends swimming with us too :)
Last for this post, family vacations. No matter how simple or not they were the best time. We had a great time as a family and made some real lasting memories.
Enough of memory lane. Thanks for the post Sarah. Hey are you going to be around Sunday? Will I at least see you at church if not at the pool later?
Jen--- I must say...Puddle jumping and getting downright soaked and dirty is a fun thing to do from time to time. Nothing like loading up on books in the Summer when you actually had time to sit and read them for hours on end...yep, you had good Summer's too.
Pa-mella,
I can just picture you in your long braids, sitting along the pool eating sandwiches and Chris in the pool playing tricks on you (brothers are inherently good at that).
Yeah, I'll be there on Sunday, and hope to be at the pool at some point in time that afternoon. My grandparents are going to be down from the UP, so the family will be together for a while that afternoon, but they're here through that next week, so I'll be coming over Fo' Sure. See you soon!
Sarah, as usual, your writing is so interesting. It certainly evokes memories for me. Riding bikes for miles, making a raft on the neighbor's pond, building "forts" out of old boards and junk in the woods, playing monopoly for hours, back aches from picking strawberries, building biceps from hours of putting up hay bales, weeding the garden and mowing the grass, never coming inside unless it rained (sometimes not even then), not wearing shoes except on Sunday and the soles of my feet tough enough to walk on broken glass - these are a few of my summertime memories. Summer seemed to last forever, and now it is here and gone in the blink of an eye.
I look forward to backpacking this summer. I trust you are going. I talked to your mom at the game the other night. She said her parents had climbed up Silver Mountain. That is one of the places we are going. It is 1500 feet high, but if an 82 year old and his wife, with two artificial hips, can do it, we can too.
I love summer!
Here's my list of childhood summer memories:
Riding our bikes to the neighbors house (about 1/2 mile away?) and always getting a homemade cookie,
Climbing on the big round bales in the field behind our house,
Climbing on the big round bales at Jenny's house and talking for hours,
painting the small sheds that my dad would build and sell,
swinging on grandma Decker's willow tree,
etc., etc.,
Hmmm...I do not have the lovely country memories. Kraig laughs at me but my friends and I would play softball and play on the monkeybars at the park. We would ride to each other's houses and bother the older brothers. Our key verse was to sing, yes sing, we got a popsicle and you don't. My brothers never appreciated that and someone would always have a portion of their popsicle on the ground. So much for the teasing. When we were older, we would ride our bikes to 7-11 for a slurpee (I know that you are all really surprised by that fact) or if we were really lucky to McDonald's on Bay Rd. We were quite the adventurers!
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