Jul. 31, 2004 - 19:48 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Summerness

My mind is like I was in the summer, laying on its back in the sun, near trees so that shade and coolth would surround me before it got uncomfortable.

I watered early and saw that it would be hot, and found out for sure when we went on errands. But there is health in heat it seems. Mental health if nothing else.

Sunshine and yellow day lilies, the damp feel of growing things. Memories of being barefoot in our lawn with the green grass between my toes, drinking from the hose after a hot walk from the store. Summertime clouds like the old fashioned fancy powder puffs (like on the Coty box), piled high in the sky which made me lean towards building cloud castles in my mind. Or, clouds scattered in funny patterns so that I could imagine animals or other things in the clouds

Then Bev's entry today about tomatoes, corn and sunflowers, brought on a heavy feeling of summer. Her memories of how it used to be when she was younger where she lived.

When I was young it seemed that I woke up early in the morning just to see what nature was presenting for the day, watching the glorious sunset in the evening and wanting to stay up late looking at the sky full of stars with the moon shining over my shoulder.

Riding in our car with Mom and Dad on a soft summer evening on a road to nowhere in particular, seeing the moon shining in first one car window and then another. The smell of farmland.

By myself wandering down by the rail road tracks near home, smelling the creosote on the ties, occasionally coming on a stack of ties with the sharp odor of creosote. That smell came on strong in the summer, it did.

Going out on my bike into the country which was near, truck farms mostly, but farms nevertheless. Wire fences, pastures, cattle, wildflowers, magpies and other birds a wing all stranger and more fun than boring town stuff for me. Seemed as if I could get a deep breath of life as it should be out there somehow.

But yet, in our city summertime made its appearance, Washington Park and City Park were fun to roam around seeing what could be seen. City Park with its beautiful rose garden for one thing. City parks if well done bring nature as close as it can into a city, it seems to me.

Summertime around our house brought Lilies of the Valley, Trumpet Vine and all the special flowers and plants that my Dad had around the yard. I can still remember the sweet odor of the Lilies of the Valley in his garden.

School far from my mind in the summer, not to be thought of until Labor Day and then with the foreboding that school time was nearing. I had my own school to attend in the summer, one taught by Mother Nature and her people. One which I attended with joy every summer and still feel a bit of glee even now when it is hot, humid with the odor of growth, green with life, birds and butterflies about. Sunshowers now and then a heavy thunderstorm bringing heavy rain to freshen the earth and revive the smell of summer.

On into teenage and the sweet summer evening walks with a girl, gentle talk, romance in the air.

I beg my pardon Diary, but I am having a heavy attack of Summerness . . . . . . . .

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