Can You Feel It?

Orignailly published in June of 2012, this article is as apropos today as it was then.

Some people have a favourite month or season, to the exclusion of all others.  I never really have, though I’ve said “this is my favourite time of year!” at least once per season for many years now. The fact of the matter is I see beauty, feel hope and draw inspiration from all the seasons (though I could live quite nicely without quite so much snow, thank you very much).  And as each different time of year rolls around, I am inspired and hopeful all over again.

My mood when June arrives is a case in point.  Sometime early in the month, I inevitably start feeling a restless tug somewhere in the region of my solar plexus.  I can remember feeling this way when I was a child and always assumed it was caused by that long slow burn of anticipation caused by waiting for the interminably lengthy school year to come to an end.  But since I’m long past those school years and still succumb to the same sensation, I have come to wonder if I misunderstood its cause for all those years. 

Perhaps there’s something more elemental in this feeling… something that has more to do with nature’s slow creep from fresh-turned earth to lustrous green bounty.  All I know is that I welcome this lovely tingle each year, as I also welcome the lovely new growth on fields and trees and the restless energy I see building in all of our children as they start sensing their 10 month enforced slavery to book-bags and binders coming to a close for the summer.

And with June’s arrival, I’m drawn to spending time each day with my fingers in the earth, much to the chagrin of my manicurist, whose unthinkable task it will be to beat my unruly cuticles back into submission and find a way to clean and soften this soil-stained skin once more. It’s been gently suggested that I wear gloves when gardening… but how do you garden if you can’t feel the soil’s warmth on your skin?  Inconceivable!   Hers is a dirty job, to be sure,.

Here’s hoping you’ll take a moment to sink into a comfy lawn chair, slap on a straw hat and sit in the garden… enjoying the smells of summer and the drone of the honey bees at work as you read.