I loved summer as a kid. Having a long break from school, swimming at my grandparents house, eating copious amounts of popsicles, popping fireworks on the fourth of July, going on family vacations, having sleepovers with my friends and going to church camp all made my childhood summers pretty magical. I don’t love summer anymore though. I struggle to tolerate it, actually.
Summer has felt different to me over the past decade. I think part of the reason is the because working full time doesn’t leave much free time for fun summer activities, and the rest of it I believe is just the 95+ degree weather that makes me want to spend my free time indoors with the lights off, windows covered, blasting the air conditioner and sipping on extra dirty martinis. Here’s my recipe for those, in case you’d like one:
1.5 oz gin
2 oz olive brine
3 olives
Stir gin and olive brine in a metal shaker with ice for about 10 seconds, strain into a martini glass and garnish with 3 olives. Dry vermouth is optional. I don’t love it.
Seasonal depression hits a lot of people in the middle of winter, but it comes for me in the summer. Every summer, like clockwork. Aside from doing my best to mentally fight against it, eat well, take a variety of vitamin and herbal supplements, exercise, drink plenty of water and spend time with the people I love, I have yet to find a cure for my summertime sadness. Daydreaming about Autumn helps, but until late September comes around that’s about all I can do.
I believe that God created the seasons, which is one reason why I feel guilty for saying that I don’t care for one of them. Nichole Nordeman released a song in 2000 titled Every Season, which I have always loved as a lifelong fan of her music, but only recently have been able to appreciate it on a deeper level and fully take the song’s lesson to heart. That lesson being that seasons aren’t just weather, but phases of life, and that our time should never be wasted by sitting around and waiting for it to pass. It is fine to have personal preferences and to change your mind about things as your life circumstances and you yourself inevitably change and evolve, but its important to appreciate and participate in life, even if it is 105 degrees outside.
Ecclesiastes 3:3-8 says: For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to uproot;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
Happy summer to all who celebrate 🙂
Chelsea from the music box 
Love this! I used to enjoy summer sooo much, but there is somehow no more time for swimming pools and snow cones. Plus, it is just dadgum hot these days :p
Hang in there! Autumn is just around the corner… I think.
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