Maria Shriver

The Simple Joys of Summer

By Sheryl Paul

Summer is the season of simple and timeless joys. She frolics like a happy child between innocent spring and melancholy autumn waiting for us to embrace her unbridled delight with life. It’s the season when we walk barefoot in the grass; we watch kids run through sprinklers and throw themselves with careless abandon onto Slip-and-Slides; and we wear straw hats, sun dresses, and sandals while eating a single scoop of vanilla ice cream in a wafer cone.

A few weeks ago, summoned by summer’s enticing breeze, my older son and I wordlessly agreed to a daily ritual. After the little one falls asleep for his nap, we grab our sun hats and each other’s hands and walk out to the garden. No matter how much frustration or irritation have pock-mocked our morning, as soon as we step onto the stones that mark our garden’s edge, we exhale more deeply and feel the tensions dissolve.

Away from computers, phones, and the mounting collection of “kid stuff” that fill our house, we fall into an easy rhythm as we engage in the simplest of tasks: weeding, watering, harvesting. The waterfall of words that normally tumbles from his six-year old lips slows down, as if his thoughts are following the cadence of his actions. There’s space to hear birdsong and the rush of the creek. There’s time to bend down low and observe the honeybee drying her tattered wings in the heat of the midday sun.

After my son picks pockets full of snap peas, we walk back indoors, sit together on the wicker chair in the screened-in porch and marvel at the miracle of these delicious green treasures. “Better than candy,” he says, as he thoroughly enjoys the sweetness of these peas that we planted together in early spring. So simple, and so complete. It is, without a doubt, the high point of our day.

The secret is in slowing down long enough to notice the simple miracles that surround us. It’s like that beautiful little poem, The Red Wheelbarrow, by William Carlos Williams:

so much depends
upon
a red wheel barrow
glazed with rain water
beside the white chickens.

Indeed, so much does depend on noticing these singular moments of life that can, when we take the time to see them, connect us to a profound sense of joy and gratitude. It can sometimes feel like a Herculean effort to peel ourselves away from the magnetic force of the computer and the things we have to do (the ever-growing and never-ending to-do list), but I would venture to say it’s an inarguable truth that the simple joys of summer will not be found in that virtual reality or in checking off items from the list.

In this culture that exalts technology, achievement and efficiency to a godlike realm, we have to listen closely for the simple activities that invite us to slow down to a natural pace. Summer abounds with these opportunities. It might be as simple as stretching out under a tree like a cat in the shade and allowing ourselves to unwind in the late afternoon languid heat. It might be taking ten minutes in the middle of a workday to sit on a park bench, bite into a crunchy, red apple, and notice the shapes of the clouds as they billow across the sky. Do you remember, as a kid, finding dinosaurs and dogs hiding in the clouds? During this childlike season, we can become like children and remember that it’s the simple moments and the timeless tasks that inspire the most joy.

Sheryl Paul, M.A., has counseled thousands of people worldwide through her private practice, her bestselling books, her Home Study Programs and her websites. She has appeared several times on “The Oprah Winfrey Show”, as well as on “Good Morning America” and other top media shows and publications around the globe. To sign up for her free 78-page eBook, “Conscious Transitions: The 7 Most Common (and Traumatic) Life Changes“, visit her website at http://conscious-transitions.com.