Simple Summer Pleasure

Bike rides until dark. Backyard tent “sleep-outs.” The smell of Coppertone and chlorine.

I can taste red popsicles, watermelon, and a burger from the grill.

Feel the sense of having space to breathe. Freedom.

This year, I flipped to June and was hit with an emotional tidal wave of longing for a kid summer.  The kind filled with sunburns and kick the can, happy boredom, and moments of being so present that decades years later I can still recall their taste, smell, sound, and feeling on my skin. 

Instead of dealing with the exhausting shit life keeps putting in my path, I want summer joy. Joy made up of ordinarily extraordinary experiences filling up long, lazy, never-ending days.

Too much adult experience tells me it can never be the same, and if I’m completely honest, that makes me a little melancholy.

Are you feeling it, too? 

I'm coping - starting with this list of the ways I hope to escape adulthood and reclaim the joy. They’re small things, but writing them down feels like making a small sacred promise to myself that I will take a moment to live in simple pleasure.

• At least one afternoon rain storm will turn into a coloring session. (Note: Buy new crayons, pencils etc) 

• Ride bike to a corner store and get a slushie.  Let go of handlebars on the way home.

• Camp crafts – painted rocks, friendship bracelets and one of those weird plastic keychain things. Send bracelets to childhood friends along with a note describing a great shared memory.

• Foil dinners a la Girl Scout cuisine. But this time with a nice red wine.

• Make Aunt Cody’s ice cream and eat until stomach hurts or brain freezes – whichever comes first.

• Ride in the backseat of the car with my sister. If she pinches me first, she’s going down.

• Stay outside until the street lights come on.

• S’mores. Enough said.

Looking forward to seeing your simple summer pleasure list.

Julie

p.s. This is a gem.