How quickly we forget...

Summer is finally here! We can be free and let loose. They may as well have called the sun a ball of flaming joy - Star Riches. Carefree day spent sitting in the shade, looking out over some sort of glistening water, sipping cool lemonade, feeling the breeze and listening to the birds.... and sneezing! and scratching and rubbing eyes and oh the agony! How quickly we forget the terrible things that can come along with summer.

Beautiful gardens full of flowers bring out the worst side(s) of people with allergies to hay and cotton and anything that MIGHT be floating in the breeze. And nothing is worse to a person with allergies than a person who doesn't have allergies. They just don't understand how completely miserable it makes a person. The outdoors have no appeal, the warm weather brings no joy, and the water is no longer refreshing.

Speaking of water... what nasty thing goes along with water during summer? Something come to mind? Does it give you tingles? Is it making you look over your shoulder in fear? Have your ears perked up, listening for and dreading that humming noise just at the thought or MOSQUITOES!?? Buzzing, sucking, ugly, itchy, burning, infuriating! Some summer nights I have been up until 2 in the morning, just hunting down mosquitoes in my room so that I can sleep in peace. I carry a tube of Bite Ointment (Phenergan... works GREAT) in my purse and apply it regularly.

Then there are burns and dehydration and sweat and all of that stuff. It's so easy to forget about those during the winter months when we'd give anything just for a bit of natural heat.

Now I'm not dissing summer. I still love it. I am more than happy (okay, maybe a little bit less than happy) to put up with all of those things just to enjoy everything good and perfect about summer.

Water, swimming, beaches, sand, ice cream, naps, sunshine, warmth, cool drinks, refreshing, bathing suits, tanning, late nights, gorgeous sunsets, fresh strawberries, juicy blackberries, sweet peaches, soft breezes, barbecues, campfires, s'mores, camping, tents, muisc, family, friends, Shuswap (hehe)...

How cunningly nature hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity under roses and violets and morning dew! - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The sun is the epitome of benevolence - Jessi Lane Adams

It is the beginning of June. Normally by now I would have a tan. Alas, tis not to be so. If this global warming gets any worse, we're all going to freeze to death! I don't usually get so upset about bad weather, but lately the pressure and moisture in the air is weighing heavily on me. (Or is that just the stress of a new job?) After what seems like an entire year of wetness, (7 months is almost a year) I am ready for some sunshine. But that seems so far into the future. 

Yes, even as I write this the sun is starting to peek from behind the layers and layers of cloud, but I would bet money that it is to be short lived. Sure, the forecast for next week is pretty impressive (since when is a high of 18 impressive for June?), but so was this weeks. And look what we got. Rain, wind, cold... everything short of precipitation that is no longer liquid. We can hope that the sun will continue to grace us with it's presence, but I think we all know deep down that we will have at least another week of February. Tease.

Actually, this post started off as a rant about the lack of sunshine, but then I found this quote.

The sun is the epitome of benevolence - it is lifegiving and warmthgiving and happinessgiving, and to it we owe our thanksgiving - Jessi Lane Adams

Then I got to thinking, there could be a good reason why the Sun sounds and looks so much like the Son. (I'm talking about the Sun of God here. I mean the Son. Ah! this could get confusing). All of the qualities mentioned in that quote are embodied by Jesus. He gives us life, and we should be thankful. Then I stumbled across this quote, and it became even clearer;

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do. - Galileo

Yes, this too is like the Son. All those planets (disciples?) and moons and stars (the crowds that followed him?) seem like the most important thing, and nothing else should matter. Yet the grapes (the sick, the poor) get just as much attention as anything else, maybe even more, as if that were the only thing on the To Do list.

Maybe this was very easy for most of you to figure out, maybe you already knew this. But my mind rarely works like this. I can almost never look at a piece of literature of any sort and come up with anything more than "Yup. I know."