One of the secret reasons why summer is a welcome time of the year is because as temperatures start to gradually rise, so do our spirits! After all, who doesn’t feel better after a day by cooling waters, a late-afternoon walk, or spending a balmy night on a deck with family and friends? But, there’s more summer to than its simple pleasures. As we’re about to discover, this season is full of secret powers that, once understood, are guaranteed to help us let go and grow!

The official beginning of summer – June 21^st – is an event recognized world over as the summer solstice. On this day (in the Northern hemisphere) the earth is bathed in the greatest amount of sunlight possible and – for all this radiant energy that soaks in – comes a period of peak activity evidenced everywhere in nature.

In the trees, life-supporting sap flows more freely than any other time of the year. Leaves burgeon and swell; countless individual branches reach for the sun, even as root systems dive deeper into the earth. Creatures everywhere are searching for – and consuming – the vital foods they need to nourish the explosion of growth taking place within them.

Summer fruits start transforming the substance of their own flesh into sweet sugars, dressing themselves in rich colors that proclaim they are ripe and ready to eat. Fields of grains and grasses reach maturity; their stalks, waving in the late-afternoon winds, are teased into dropping countless seeds.

Summer is the time of natural abundance. These are the days of a great conversion: the whole of life flourishes, fulfills, and feeds itself at once. We see before us the immeasurable power of plentitude. But what do we stand to gain for realizing the strength of this season?

In the bright light of summer we are empowered to detect and drop the only thing that ever defeats us: being identified with the false self that wants us to feel discontent with what life gives to us.

Summer is a good time for letting go of any fearful concern we may have over uncertain days that lie ahead of us. Any part of our false self that wants to feel troubled over its own darkly imagined tomorrow should be tossed high into the air – winnowed like summer wheat so the chaff of fear blows away – leaving behind only the precious kernel of contentment with what we are being given in the here and now.

This season of growth is also the perfect time to detect and dismiss any parts of us that tell us we can’t outgrow what may have compromised us in days past. It is the time to discover that this higher ground we seek more than just awaits us; it is actually reaching out to meet us half way, if we will only take the necessary steps in our journey of letting go.