the best

tonight we will watch the strawberry full moon rise. this time of year elevates my mood to a higher baseline.

i love almost everything about summer. and even the things i don’t love don’t bother me so much (really, just the mosquitoes).

i love the heat. i love light until 9pm. i love lightning bugs glowing everywhere. i love thunderstorms and toasty rain. i love driving my convertible after a hot and sweaty hockey game. i love driving with the top down all the time.

i love hockey moms, which started last night. actually realized that i have improved, no one more surprised than me, especially when we were practicing stops and tight turns and crossovers. hah! i love learning to be a better player with other moms.

i love drinking cold water and smoothies, which i avoid in colder months. i love wearing sleeveless shirts, alone, without three or four extra layers just to walk out the door. i love keeping my house windows open. i love listening to the birds first thing in the morning and the owl in the nearby tree at night. i love watching butterflies find the perfect flower. i love the flowers blooming everywhere you walk and on house porches and i love trees dressed in all their various green-shaded leaves and my own plants sprouting new growth.

i love the breeze that biking creates through my very short hair on even the hottest days. i love sweating and then showering. i love being in bed with only the covers or a sheet, not needing a sweater and pants or dreading middle-of-the-night bathroom trips on the cold tile or the goosebump-causing chill of the room.

i love walking without having to huff through icy fingers reaching into my lungs. i love not having to worry about the kids’ homework or their getting to sleep at a reasonable hour.

i love gazpacho. and margaritas. and an aperol spritz. i love love love watermelon and a fresh fruit salad always in the fridge. i love how everything slows down. how you can hear music at festivals and concerts in parks or the national gallery sculpture garden. how you can eat or have a drink at the outside tables in the sunshine or moonlight. how the wind blows the shades from the open bedroom windows.

i love summer.