Making room for “summertime” anytime of the year
“Back to school” season is in full swing for our home…middle school, high school x 2, and college. Our summer was filled with a family beach trip, summer jobs, summer school, an internship and mission trip, baseball, trying to get my kids to read, church camp, late nights and moody people, swimming, movies, hanging out with friends. Great experiences these are (Oh, I sound like Yoda from Star Wars, here), but my heart is also filled with the fun and free summers when the kids were younger. Vacation Bible School, arts and crafts at home on a weekly basis, playing in the kiddie pool in the backyard, driving Hot Wheels cars through a pile of shaving cream on the toddler table, then to have Maggie do hairstyles on her dolls…and us!
On Ryan’s mission trip to Nicaragua this summer, he learned such deep life-long lessons. He learned that kindness and being helpful are more rewarding than any monetary amount. He saw a man be healed and walk again and that prayer works! Ryan shared his faith and how taken back he was by their love to him. It is so true how we go to serve a group of people, and it is the servants who receive such a blessing that can hardly be contained.
I vividly remember flying back to the United States after my mission trip to the Dominican Republic in the summer of 2014. As I sat on the plane listening to my music, tears just rolled down my face. I couldn’t contain myself. All the emotions of losing Tammy and experiencing a trip of a lifetime with people who have more needs and struggles than I could ever know. The week of working with our new friends with limited understanding of their native language, the sleepless nights in a cabin that had enormous spiders on the prowl outside, the cautiousness of eating new foods, cold showers, scary bus rides, being thousands of miles from comfy home – the cuddly children and grateful adults made it all worthwhile.
I wrote in my journal, through blurry eyes, “I don’t want to be the same. I want to push forward through this grief and have joy, and to share this joy with others. I feel the hope, Lord, that I will have joy again…in the morning after such a terribly huge loss.”
As we bid farewell to our new friends, a couple of ladies came to me and shared how I touched their lives with hope. I don’t even know what I said or did. But, it doesn’t matter, because sharing this mutual gift of HOPE was all that we needed….and a hug with tears. Thank you, Lord! Ah, the days and experiences of “summertime” life.
When I think of my summers growing up, I have great memories of riding bikes to our local pool and buying my favorite ice cream bar at the snack shack every day (I still buy it when on those rare days I see an ice cream truck – the strawberry crunch bar!), camping in a tent in the backyard, swimming in the lake, building a new home (which my dad found to be one of his hobbies…new home every few years and so interesting how it would be in the summertime…for us kids to stay out of trouble and work with him.. but it is by far my one of my favorite memories as a kid…..thanks, Dad, for those awesome home building lessons!!)
Did anyone ever stop to realize that as an adult, we no longer have those carefree childhood “summertimes” anymore?! How did this happen? Who was in charge of this crazy idea? Was there a vote? Even though I only work part- time, I am a full time mom. This means there are no breaks, and if I want a day off I have to go on a mission trip or to the local spa and pay $30 for them to babysit me for the day! Ahhhhhh, my spa days. How I love the smells, the relaxing music, the “chill” factor of everyone walking around in their white robes and laying around on lounge chairs. If you haven’t done this ever, I dare you to try it out. Men and women! Take a journal, magazine, or book. I promise you will feel refreshed. For Kurt, my husband, though, his favorite day of “chilling” is on his dirt bike. He loves the smell of the outdoor air with swirling dirt and the sounds of the throttle wide open.
Whatever it is, give yourself a little blessing and find some “summertime” that works for you. Yes, even in the months that are not technically “summer”.
