The Liminal Space of Summer

The best moment of my still-fresh week so far, has been when I sat on my favorite chair in my bikini, curtains drawn, munching on rice and beans in a completely quiet house.

Ah!

To sit inside on a hot summer day, slightly cold, is an unexpected luxury I can’t explain. Maybe, at the end of July, when you still feel assured of the seasonal abundance of warmth and sunlight, can you afford to shut it out momentarily.

This isn’t September behavior. It also doesn’t occur in April.

I’m writing this on my phone now. From my chair. In my swimsuit. In the cold behind the curtains.

The fact that the Substack app enables this now, is a cool feature of the tech age we’re living in.

Playing on your phone indoors while the sun is shining, is also a mother’s summer break nightmare. Go outside! The sun is shining! Your eyes are getting square from staring at the TV! - I can practically hear her in my mind!

The Liminal Space of Summer

To be assured of something, sunshine and warmth in the dead of summer, provides you with the luxury to forgo it. Or is it squandering it?

This is the liminal time of summer.

The realization that it’s finite is creeping in only very slowly. With the new month, I’m sure, it will hit me all at once. Spring and fall are equally(ish) far away. But for now, summer has just started and will keep going for a while.

In-Between Intolerance

How’s your tolerance for the in-between?The yes-and? My mind is drawn to the binary from inherited attitudes and years, decades now of social media.

Last night, before bed, a thought popped into my head that I wrote down in my journal: Do it with lightness and determination. - A sensibility that sounds great in theory, though requires a reorientation in practice.

You can sense pleasure about rays of sunshine and shutting them out at the same time. Going after things with a steely determination while having fun.

Cognitively, at least, it slots well into place. Factually, habitually, it’s a slightly outlandish proposition to a mind that craves the neatness of the binary.

Thinking and operating in absolutes is easier. More comforting. It’s also a missed chance for growth.

Treading Lightly

A great summer is catching all the rays and dilly dallying inside. A good journey comes with determination and lightness. Love with the opportunity for loss. Life achieves its preciousness due to its finality…

Too much of either makes Jack a dull boy. Or, a dead one.

What makes you and I lively people?

I will contemplate it after an indoor siesta. The sun awaits. My goals ask for action. I will unclench my jaw and tread lightly with the focus of an eagle.

A happy summer is embracing the paradoxes. Cold-warm, happy-sad. Longing-living.

But, … nap first.

Have a good one!

Johanna

PS: The photo the jungles of Hyde Park in summer is by me.