There is nothing like summer! As a kid I thought it would last forever. And with August here, the reality of the finite days of summer, makes us squirm. When we know something is coming to an end we want to savor it, make it last longer, let it leave its' indelible ink written on our hearts. Last night I took a sunset cruise around the ICWW near my home. There were so many colors of blue in the sky and on the sea, I could not capture them all to memory, so I just sat and absorbed them thru my skin. I did not want that connection to end. We take pictures so we can't forget, but when we look at them later, we remember the moment in our mind, but we often lose the impact of how it really felt in our whole body and soul. The true visceral impact takes us back to not just what the eyes saw, but what our soul felt. It is in the soul that there is the greatest potential to be moved and changed.
In the book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a young girl is forced to help support her family due to an alcoholic father. She lies about her age and lands a editing job in Manhattan. At fifteen she gets her first paycheck. Sitting at her desk she pauses to feel the paper check between her fingers, the wind on her cheeks from the open window, the wooden floorboards beneath her feet and the soft cotton dress around her shoulders. She wants to remember this moment forever. With that experience magnetically resined in her brain, it is unlikely her capacity for gratitude will ever be diminished.
We cannot make changes that stick only with our minds. We try, we fail, we try again. We practice because practice makes perfect. All these things are important, but the soul has to take over. Herein lies the passion, the value, the connection to who we are. In the final month of summer, take time to embrace the little things of joy and gratitude each day brings you. You can't be grateful for all things, but you can be grateful for one, and another and another. Wholeness is the sum of many parts.
Start with the parts and see what you can build. Maybe a sandcastle that even if the waves wash it away, the experience will have left an impression that sticks.
