“For him in vain the envious seasons roll
Who bears eternal summer in his soul.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Old Player
Is summer in your soul? Is it in mine? I mean the best parts of summer–barefoot days, bees busy in the clover, blue skies studded with white puffs of clouds. I’d like to keep those days of warmth and freedom from cold forever within me, those days of greeting old friends and making new ones, of watching nature rejoicing in the warmth of the sun.
When I was a child, I would lie under a shade tree on a quilt and notice the ever-changing cloud shapes. A youngster has such fun with this simple pastime. Sara and Nathan did that too. “Oh, look, Mem,” one would say. “There’s a giraffe. No, no it’s a turtle.” And, on it would go. Days of happy imaginings.
One of my cloud poems was included in Give Your Child a Head Start in Reading by Fitzhugh Dodson, Ph. D, on page 113.
Cloud Animals
Fluffy, friendly dragons float across the sky
Shapes of whales and dinosaurs that swim and soar and fly.
I like to watch the changing clouds, their shapes are fun to see,
And as they frolic on fields of blue, do they look down on me?
So, with this day ends the month of June. July is upon us. This is when summer begins in earnest, when the sun turns up its heat, roots go deep in the ground searching for moisture, and hay fields stand ready to be cut and baled. Birds and rabbits take seriously every bit of shade and flock around the bird bath. When the Fourth rolls around, the weather usually matches it–hotter than a firecracker.
Such is not always the case, though. One summer a couple of years back, Oklahoma had its wettest July on record. It was so unusual, it inspired a book, Grave Heritage. On this July in Levi, Oklahoma, Darcy and Flora had to contend with floods and a crazed murderer. It was hard; they had just moved into their new house on Granny Grace’s land, and they also had to help two elderly ladies who imagined somebody or something was in the house with them, stealing things like pies or cookies. Did the unusual weather have anything to do with this? And, would they have come through in one piece if they had not hope and summer forever in their souls?
Loved this reminder of summer days long past when I would lie in the back yard and see all those wonderful pictures formed by the beautiful clouds rolling by.
A child can have so much fun with the simple things. And, come to think of it, the simple things are the best. Those were wonderful days!