I can’t believe that summer is halfway over! I remember as a kid my parents telling me that time speeds up as you get older and to treasure how summer was. Of course being the precocious child I sometimes was, I would respond ‘Oh please, you’re pulling my leg. Time is still the same no matter what”. But… my parents were right. Time has seemed to speed up and it’s weird but not being in school and having summer break to look forward to, the start of another school year to dread and those 3-ish months to soak up and enjoy as much as possible free afternoons and outings with friends, time and the summer just go running by. Remember when summer was special, it was what you lived all year for? You counted down the days right around Memorial Day. Started planning what you were going to do the first day off, how many times you were going to go to the pool, mall, movies, amusement park, Maria or Tim’s house (insert your own childhood friends names of course). The smell of summer, the warm breezes and long hours of light, it was all you could do to keep yourself in your desk ’til the last bell on the last day of the year. Then summer seemed like this endless thing in front of you.
Nowadays summer is the pretty much the same as spring and fall and winter. Work, weekends, occasional days off. Appointments, errands and holidays sprinkled in. Summer is going by pretty quickly and from time to time I sit in my car after a long day at work, on my back patio on a Saturday morning, or on a walk down some nearby trails and think where in the world did the time go. I know we’ve all heard it before ‘Make the most of the time we are given’ or ‘Stop occasionally and smell the roses’ and they seem like ancient clichés that we smile and nod to when people older than us expel them for our benefit. But truly as someone who is at 31 finally, albeit slowly, learning the value of the time I have, I’m telling you… stop for even a few seconds and really take in the sunrises and daylight that lasts past 8pm, cool breezes on hot days and small moments of reflection in this second half of summer before it’s gone. Slow down for a moment and just… take it in. Take in the here and now, the age you are and where you are. Appreciate the things you have and try not to dwell on the things you don’t. Appreciate the sunrises and sunsets, the ocean breezes off the shore, green leaves building canopies over walkways, the light streaks the sun makes thru windows, the sounds of kids playing without a care in the world. Don’t let time just go whizzing by and before you know it end up realizing that it’s August 31st and then think ‘Where did the time go?’.
