my top 10 favourite little things about summer🌞
the season made for slow living
At this point in August, it’s easy to forget how much we longed for warm days in the depths of winter. Before it slips through our fingers, I wanted to pause and hold this season of sun, milking its little moments while we’re still here. I’m a big fan of this “anticipatory nostalgia” as it helps me grow roots of gratitude in the moment. I’m sure another language has a word for this feeling- if you know of it please drop it in the comments💛.
My Top 10 Favourite Little Things About Summer
Long days. Time is an illusion, but there’s something about waking up naturally to soft light on your lashes, feeling rested, and then checking the time and being surprised that it’s only 6am. With a full day ahead, it’s easy to complete projects early, or soak the slowness of the morning for a more relaxed afternoon.
Fresh fruit and wildflowers. Waiting for the eruptions of flavour that come as a reward from the delayed gratification of eating organic fruit seasonally. Strawberries. Tomatoes. Raspberries. Fruit in so much abundance that you need to put it in pies or can it for rainy days. This is also the time for fruit’s neighbours: the flower. I love flowers soooo much! Gazing at them instantly makes me light up, especially if they’re happily still growing tall and free in fields as far as the eye can see. I’m in the Netherlands right now, and I don’t know another country with bouquets so affordable!
Summer storms. The feeling of hearing heavy thunder and then running to my open windows to breathe in the fresh rain and excitement with eyes wide. Searching dramatic clouds for slices of lighting and then waiting for the drop of the rollercoaster thunder will never get old. The relief followed by wonder of nature is something that makes me feel connected to humans throughout millennia.
Forgotten roadtrip playlists. Those lost mixtapes and CDs that just bring you back to another time and place. Of stops in supermarkets on the way to the campsite where the AC is making you shiver until you step back out into the blazing heat. Of the window rolled down on the highway when you’re young and wondering if this will be the summer you’ll experience love like they do in the lyrics. Of singing at full volume with your family and knowing exactly which track comes next because it was a time before “shuffle” existed.
Warm nights. Late outdoor European-style dinners where no one’s worried about waking up early, and you don’t even need a sweater because the sun is taking its time leaving your skin. Maybe there’ll be fireworks or skinny-dipping in the lake, maybe there’ll be s’mores and hot chocolate, or board games by candlelight. Maybe you’ll make new friends, or recount sweet memories of old ones.
School holidays. I can’t help but still look at the year in terms of ending a grade in June and starting a new one in September. That excitement of wondering how much will change in two months when days would stretch endlessly without the structure of timetables, and you’d get lost in daydreams back when you had just enough restraints and freedom to have the possibility of being bored. Lately I’ve been purposefully carving out time without any stimulation from technology to let my mind work the way it used to.
Hearing travel stories. Asking questions and listening intently to stories of where loved ones went for the summer and how their experience was. Sometimes when we see photos we assume we know what someone’s been up to, but the time someone spends in between reaching for a camera or phone is just as interesting.
When no hair-dryers are needed! As someone with thick curly hair, cold winter mornings waiting for my hair to dry actually takes up a LOT of my time, so I am including this first-world vanity point on my top ten list. I dislike how long my hair takes to dry so much that sometimes I avoid exercising because I know that means extra time afterwards washing and drying my hair on low for minimal heat damage. Not to mention the rain in the winter that makes it a frizzy mess. Thank you summer sun for being my time-saver and giving me mostly good hair days!
Melting ice cubes on my neck. The wet drips down my back and evaporates in minutes. These are the days where my brain feels like it’s gently melting. I move slow and sink any frantic bubbles of anxiety into a molasses of calm heavy breaths.
Salt, sand, sweat, sunscreen. This is the formula for summer at the beach and between your toes, in your folds, and collecting at the bottom of your shower…it’s the messiness that follows you to bed between your sheets and smells like childhood reading the days away.