I have been spending a fair amount of time outside lately and loving just about every minute of it. There are plenty of people who complain in the summer when it's hot and wish away for Fall. I used to be one too. In Virginia , summers are mighty. The heat is so different than desert heat. I've spent time in the desert in the summer. I will grant it feels like stepping onto the door of an open oven. The heat is dry though, and as your sweat instantly evaporates it feels cooling. Here, the damp heat feels more like rolling around in a boiling pot, it enters every pore. I just soak it up now though, storing it away to remember on those winter days when Mother Nature is recuperating and the bleak sky has only pale rays to give. My mind was changed by my husband's business. He is a landscaper. You just can't look someone in the eye and complain about your hot day spent playing with your child outside for an hour or two when that person has spent the day performing grueling labor in worse conditions! The year he began I stopped being so negative about the heat. I gotta say it's been great. I look around more now, focusing on the jungle that is Virginia in the summer. The woods are a beautiful combination of dark browns and vibrant greens against intense blue backgrounds. Flowers grow everywhere, twisting themselves into and around every single inch of ground and fence, and pushing up toward the sun. I want to be a vessel, maybe one of those ancient olive oil jars, just filling myself with all of the energy and joy I feel vibrating around me whenever I'm outside.
