That Summer Feeling - OUTSIDE!

A couple of weeks ago, I had a weekend that reminded me of Summer.  Not summer, the hot season full of projects and busy-ness, but Summer, as in Summer Vacation from School.

And not the short, anemic, pitiful, so-called "summer break" so many kids have now.  Our school calendar ends the first week of June and starts August 1 - about a seven-week break, if there are no snow days to make up.

For me, Summer was thirteen glorious weeks of freedom - plenty of time to get bored and long for school to start again.  I'd get on my bike, pick up a friend or two, and we'd ride all over the neighborhood, aimlessly exploring all the streets.  Or we'd head to the creek that ran behind our houses and explore - again, aimlessly.

I've been adulting for decades.  It's been a long time since I had a Summer with a capital "S" but I got a taste of it.

That Thursday, I went exploring in the country - aimlessly!  I found a park I'd never visited and two quiet public access sites to the river.  Once I turned off the car, it was as if I were far away from home in the middle of nowhere.  At both places, I could only hear birds singing, and at one, just barely, a lawnmower.  I sat there for a little while and just soaked in the quiet and the sounds of being outside.

Friday, I drove up to the marina and went sailing.  I haven’t sailed the boat in a couple of years, what with bad weather, babies, schedules, working, and all the typical excuses.  I was on the water for a couple of hours - sunburn!  But not bad.  Just enough to know I’d been out a while - another Summer sensation.  It was soothing to just sail around - aimlessly!

Saturday, I went on my first Volksmarch since 1993 (now there's a thought)!  The route wandered from a park in the next town north, through the town, across the lake, through another park, and back.  Crossing the lake, I saw turtles basking on logs and a great blue heron guarding a dock.  They looked like they were enjoying Summer.

Sunday, I went to church at my church's woodsy outdoor chapel.  Sitting on a wooden bench under the trees for a worship service took me back to church camp.

Those few days felt like summer vacation.  All that time outside, the exploration, and the aimlessness.  It seems everything you do as an adult has a specific purpose or goal.  It was freeing to just BE for a change.

Enough adulting!  I’ll keep trying to recapture that feeling - aimless and outside!

I'm Not Very Good at...LOTS of Things!!!

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. - G. K. Chesterton

Oh, bless you, George!

There are so many things I LOVE to do, but I do them so BADLY.

I run.  Slowly.  Painfully slowly.  I mean, people WALK faster than I run.  And my right leg is knock-kneed (one source of the problems I've been experiencing with that leg - geesh!).  But you know, this morning I got out and chugged up the street, and I passed a small river birch with a mockingbird in it, singing his heart out.  Last week I interrupted an opossum going about his opossum business.  And there are bullfrogs in a retention pond nearer to our house, and when I hear them "harrumphing," I always laugh.  And I may not be fast, but I can go forever.  At least that's how it feels, some days.

I paint watercolors.  From a book.  Nothing original (YET).  But playing with the paint and trying out different techniques is FUN.  And one of my favorite pictures came about because of a mistake!  I was trying to get a misty rain effect using a technique described in a book.  It just would NOT work, and I kept taking a paper towel and wiping down the picture and trying again.  But one time after taking a disgusted swipe at the mess, I looked and said, "Hey!"  I had made misty rain!  Not as instructed, but who am I to look a gift misty rain effect in the mouth?  I left it, and I've gotten a lot of compliments on it!  

I sail.  Lazily.  I almost never use the jib.  It's in GREAT shape!  Oh, I hank it on to the forestay every spring and keep it in its sail cover on the deck, but I almost never let it come out and play.  Fall comes and I unhank it and throw it and the cover into the cabin until spring, when I hank it on again.

I ski.  Again, lazily.  I don't want to be bothered with the effort of skiing a black diamond slope.  I'll do greens and blues, and try to find the longest way down the mountain.  I want to get as much time on my skis as possible for my ride up to the top, and I want to be able to look at the scenery, not just at where I'm going to have to plant my pole or make my next christy.  My favorite is a about a four-mile glide at Winter Park in Colorado.  It takes me about 40 minutes to get from the summit to the base.  Now THAT'S skiing!

I play the piano.  Well enough.  No audience, please.  Oh, how I HATED recitals!  I play for myself.  Everyone can thank God for that.  At least I know enough not to inflict my playing on others, if I can avoid it.  I used to be better, but ever since getting bifocals...!  Oh my.  I have a terrible time reading the music with my head thrown back so I can look through the bottom of my glasses.  And I lose my place in the music.  And I can't find the keys.  Without my glasses, it's even worse!  I keep threatening to get a pair of CHEAP single vision glasses just for the piano.  But I enjoy the noises I make.  I can hear the RIGHT notes in my head, no matter what is coming out of the instrument!

The point is, who are you doing these things for?  Do you have to be the best?  Do you have to meet someone else's standard?  Are you in a competition?

Obviously, I'm NOT at a competitive level in any of the things I like to do, so I'd better just do them because I like to do them!  What are some things that you like to do that you avoid doing because you think you're not good enough?  I need to make a list of my own, and start DOING them.