In honor of the Summer Solstice, here are some suggestions of how to spend a summer day.

If the temperature is comfortable where you are, get a lounge chair or spread a sheet out on the lawn (if you’re in the country) or sand (if you’re at the shore.)   Lie for a while on your back and gaze at the clouds in the sky or at the leaves of the trees.  If you get sleepy, turn over, cradle your head on your arms, and let yourself doze.

When you wake up, if you want, read a really good book.  Drink lots of lemonade or iced tea or ice water.  If you get too hot, find some water – walk into the ocean or a cool stream, or dangle your feet in a pool, or run under a sprinkler.

When you get hungry, make yourself a picnic.  Make sure you have some grapes or watermelon or some other kind of fruit.  If it’s juicy, don’t mind if it drips down your chin.

Absolutely stay outside as it begins to get dark.  Enjoy the sound of the crickets and tree frogs if you’re somewhere green, the waves if you’re near the ocean, or the coyotes if you’re in the desert.  If you’re lucky enough to be where there are fireflies (lightning bugs,) let yourself see them wherever they appear.  Practice letting your peripheral vision notice them, too.  Notice that they’re near the ground in the early evening, and then they’re higher in the air and in the trees.  Some blink once and some blink twice.  Do some blink three times?  Maybe.  The ones up at the top of the trees start to blend in with the stars. 

The moon is high in the sky.  Isn’t she beautiful?  She is full and there is a lovely glow around her.  She smiles down upon the Earth like a grandmother who loves all her children and grandchildren – the good ones and the bad ones, the loud ones and the quiet ones, the smart ones and the not-so-smart ones.  She loves all her blessed children.

It has been a beautiful day.  And now it is a beautiful night.

The world turns, and it is good.