Tips for Surviving the Loss of Summer
When Summer Fades: A Tangle of Emotions
As the nurturing warmth of the summer is winding down to its very last month now, it is often met with a sometimes confusing mixture of emotions inside us. For some, whose favorite season is fall, they are excited to see summer come to a close so fall can manifest. For others (like myself), I feel a great sadness, knowing the sunlight will be getting shorter and cold wind will be around the corner. This time is also a delayed goodbye to spring as well, but because spring is immediately followed by summer (both sunshiny months), the break doesn’t seem so delineated. But the arrival of spring brings a huge emotional sigh of relief for most people when they are able to see evidence that winter’s harshness is over.
I still have old memories of the end of summer being a “countdown” of days to the beginning of having to go back to middle school…which I wasn’t particularly thrilled about. My freedom was coming to an end, so sadness followed.
Sunlight, Simplicity, and the Clothing of Freedom
I am a person who loves to NOT be cumbered down by long coats, hats, scarves, and gloves just to set foot outside my front door. It seems to take forever to just exit your house! Instead, I relish the freedom of t-shirts and shorts, which enable sunlight to be easily felt on my body. The warmth of sunshine on us is an immediate balm for most people. So, it brings me more sadness knowing all those summer clothes will need to be packed away soon.
Roses, Pools, and Daffodils: Capturing the Spirit
Knowing this array of emotions will be coming, I have learned to do specific things during the months to help preserve summer and make it feel available to me during the non-summer months. A big part of it centers around my prized rose bush located outside my desk window. I sit hours and hours a day there, focusing on my online Counseling business. So the bush has come to mean a lot to me. I even wrote an article for BHL magazine about almost losing this rose bush during Hurricane Helene. (“Lessons From My Rosebush” March 2005)
Here is what has helped me in navigating the emotions of the loss of particular seasons. I start taking photos of this bush on my iPhone in the spring, the moment tiny little closed buds start to form. I continue as they open progressively to eventually display a festival of gorgeous red roses in full bloom throughout the entire plant. It truly becomes a rose extravaganza.
I also photograph the first daffodil I see that pops out in the spring. Reminding all of us that despite the harshest wind, snow, and ice, we too have the resilience inside of us to handle major challenges that may come our way. And when the outdoor pool here opens in May, I always arrive first thing in the morning for my laps when no one is there and get lovely photos and videos of the blue blue water with reflections of the sunlight.
All of these I will look at periodically during the winter months to remind myself of that magic and also as an important nudge…” This beloved season WILL come again.” It is an effective pacifier for my heart.
Learning to Love Winter’s Gifts
The older I get (thank heavens for wisdom), the more I appreciate winter. And appreciating winter can help tremendously to offset the emotional mourning of summer. In the winter, the prolonged daylight has already gone, so I’m no longer mourning that as I do in late summer. And I have come to love the early morning walks with the brisk (sometimes freezing) air, which encourages me to never stop or slow down so I can keep my body warm enough to make it back home. There is nothing like briskly moving your body in cold temperatures to invigorate your entire being. And I remind myself that it is one of the many gifts that only winter can bring.
Savoring the Now: Finding Magic in Every Season
I would say that the overall umbrella of what my lesson has been is the vital importance of appreciating the now. We may have our individual favorite season of the year, but what I’ve learned is the importance of appreciating the magic gifts of each season, as only THAT particular season will bring that treasure into your life. And aren’t we all so very fortunate to have these four gems of time in each year?
Even for those living in areas like the Southwest, which doesn’t bring snow, ice, or fall leaves (unless you’re at high elevation), the desert has its own very special magic at each of the 4 times of year. After living in Arizona for 8 years, I know firsthand that there are colors on the canyon walls as well as cactus flowers you will not find anywhere else. I would imagine that even in Iceland and Greenland, there are magical differences between seasons.
A last suggestion is to get yourself to write about each of the seasons as they come into your life. Doesn’t have to be long. Just see if you can describe the little moments of wonder that you are noticing about what’s going on outside. I think what you will experience, as I have, is that doing these kinds of things not only can help diminish a feeling of loss for a beloved season, but it will give you brand new uplifting appreciation for each one of the seasons as they roll in and out of your life.
There is ALWAYS magic to be appreciated, wherever you are in the world, or whatever time of year it happens to be.
The lesson is to STOP and savor it.
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