Summer

I take more photos in the summer.  I tell myself it’s because in summer, my surroundings are more scenic.  IMG_1340.JPG

Because the days are longer. Because in summer, time is slower.IMG_1441.JPG

There’s no carpool, no mad scramble to leave the house before 7, to hit the highway exactly by 7:15 to avoid the gridlock that inevitably forms, worsening every minute that I’m late.IMG_1461.JPG

But that’s not exactly it.  In summer, time is a bubble.  We pack every June for the same place I’ve gone every year since I was 19.  I buy a handful of new outfits, but wind up wearing the same three every day — cutoff jeans I’ve had since I was 30, a few sundresses, aged to the perfect softness, and workout clothes I’ve owned since before I had children.  I bring makeup, but after the first week settle for sunscreen and a good lip balm.

What we get in exchange for eschewing contemporary comfort is time.  In summer, we lose track of the days.  We have no cable, no air conditioning, no phone line, no wi-fi. We judge the days by the farmer’s markets, by trash collection, by the passing of the tides.

I hold my breath and pretend that my children are babies again.  The house is so small we wake at the same time, dreaming the same dreams of ocean and the sky. They wolf their breakfasts and disappear for the day, collecting hermit crabs,  walking the beach, tubing and running from house to house for card games, for movies, piling into a car for an ice cream run, jumping off the pier into the dark and swimming as fast as they can for the raft as seaweed brushes against their legs.  Last minute sleepovers and early morning rendezvous to watch the dawn, and knowing all the while that these smallest things, these insignificant details, are what we will remember and hold tight in the cold, aging light of fall.

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Liz Michalski

6 Comments

  1. Marilynn Turner on July 23, 2017 at 8:56 am

    The memories of summer are always best captured in your heart and mind. Everlasting and lovely.

    • liz on July 23, 2017 at 8:09 pm

      Thanks, Marilynn. Heading to the lavender farm this week and hoping to make new summer memories!

  2. CG Blake on July 23, 2017 at 10:22 am

    Great photos and terrific post that captures the mood of summer. Thanks for sharing, Liz.

    • liz on July 23, 2017 at 8:10 pm

      Thanks for reading! I think of you and the WU crew every time I head to Salem Willows.

  3. Jan O'Hara on July 23, 2017 at 3:51 pm

    I wish I could wear the clothing I did at 30!

    Beautiful photos, Liz. Your kids are lucky to have that special time carved out of the hustle and bustle.

  4. liz on July 23, 2017 at 8:11 pm

    It’s definitely a stretch in terms of the clothes, Jan. But I do feel so lucky to have this bubble of time with them.

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