July
July, you dazzle.
There is such an elevated ease about you-- like you are the summit of the year and the highest height of our days. You grow sweeter with each year and, come to think of it, I haven’t met a July I didn’t like.
Why is summer so sweet? Why is it the most loved season among creatures? Is it the warm days, the idle nights, the lingering dinner guests or smell of smoke from a nearby campfire, bbq or toasting mallows? It seems as though summer brings all of the fun. Can we simply boil it down to weather? We have come so far in our advancements and yet our best of times are subject to the few months a year when the sun shines hotter and stays out longer.
July brings us back to an elemental connection to the life-force that exists both despite and in-spite of our doing. It brings us to the fresh air and warmth, to the full moons and fires, to fresh food grown from the ground. We eat our corn and sweet strawberries and californian avocados as we contemplate the more delicate dealings of life. We think about what remains after that beloved sun has wrinkled our skin and gifted us with time to create moments and stories we'll tell our newly minted grandchildren. This month has a certain nostalgia and yet There is an overwhelming sense that you are right where you are supposed to be. That might be the most treasured of places. The place where you can be still and know that This is the exact time and place and moment that you are supposed to be. It’s better than the Amalfi coast or Nantucket or a little hut in the Maldives. You have permission to unapologetically receive. This. Very. Moment.Just as it is and nothing more. These Julys create a collective feeling that our life seems to indirectly revolve around. A feeling that you chase even though you can’t quite put your finger on the last time you felt it. Despite its intangible nature, it lives in you— so you keep chasing.
Thanks July, thanks a lot. Because of you I will forever be chasing an endless summer—that unmistakable feeling of warmth that can’t be reasoned with-- only experienced.
Listen to this Endless Summer playlist to capture that coveted feeling of warmth all-year-round.
Listen to this Caribbean party Playlist when you want to feel like you are on a company trip, watching your coworker, Barb, get wasted on rum and flirt with the cabana boy. What’s not to love?
What says “SUMMER” more than a California road trip? I don’t have the answer to that, but I do have these guides to a cruisin’ the Cali coast:
8 Epic California Road Trip Stops
After long days, well-spent in the sunshine, on the sand, or floating down-river you need some easy five-ingredient dinners:
In honor of, what many consider to be, “wedding season” here is a poem that sure tugs on the heart strings
“Our Union” by Hafiz.
Our union is like this: You feel cold, so I reach for a blanket to cover our shivering feet. / A hunger comes into your body, so I run to my garden and start digging potatoes. / You asked for a few words of comfort and guidance, and I quickly kneel by your side offering you a whole book as a gift. / You ache with loneliness one night so much you weep, and I say here is a rope, tie it around me, I will be your companion for life.
This book, Laurel Canyon, about a golden-era of music and icons from the 60’s/70’s caught my eye:
“In the late sixties and early seventies, an impromptu collection of musicians colonized a eucalyptus-scented canyon deep in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles and melded folk, rock, and savvy American pop into a sound that conquered the world as thoroughly as the songs of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had before them. Thirty years later, the music made in Laurel Canyon continues to pour from radios, iPods, and concert stages around the world.”
For the best coconuty skin This cream has been a summer must-have and is affectionately called “Bum bum cream”
I wish you equal amounts of warm rays and cool waters to tame the heat. I hope you have enough calm to enjoy excitement, enough work to enjoy rest and enough disappointment to receive the moments that exceed expectation…because all is enjoyed more fully in the presence of polarity.
Happy July & Cheers to an Endless Summer state-of-mind!