Keep The Summer Vibes Alive!

Well guys, it's the final week of August, harvest is going full force, kids are heading back to school after Labour Day, the days are subtly, but definitely, getting shorter, and some of the leaves on the trees in my front yard are displaying the audacity of teasing their fall fashion colours.

The pumpkin spice ads haven't begun quite yet, but you know they're coming the minute the calendar flips on Monday. 

I don't know about you, but I'm going to do my level best to keep the summer vibes alive!

I mean, not all adventures can be road trips across the country, but they definitely can be taking grandbabies to see classic movies at the theater, bumming around with your baby sister, and catching up with life long friends!

Let's keep the fun of summer going...

Sneak in one more camping trip, a few more s'mores, a few more days filled with no plans whatsoever...

Fall doesn't have to be all work and no play...

Maybe it's learning to play an instrument, mastering a language you've never successfully spoken, taking up yoga, juggling, doing magic, or maybe it's a class that teaches some weird combination of all the above? Could be fun? 

Hey, there are actual classes to teach you how to take selfies, survive a zombie apocalypse, and ride a bike that goes nowhere like you are running from a rabid bear, just sayin...

I'm trying hard not to be in too much of a hurry to change gears into Autumn overdrive. Even better, I'm trying to fight my life-long training and not HAVE an Autumn overdrive. Instead, shift into Autumn easydrive. Soak up a bit more sun.

We do, after all, have a little while before the sun sets a few precious hours after the crack of dawn. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it can feel that way. But, we do have some time. With any luck, fall will last until December, or, at the very least, stretch out until after Halloween. 

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I didn't realize that taking our first-ever holiday would bring with it some lessons... 

Taking time to breathe and reflect is something I thought I was already doing... but I wasn't... not really.

Apparently, you don't always have to hit the ground running straight out of bed and stay that way. You also don't, I've discovered, constantly have to be busy knocking things off some arbitrary to-do list that never gets completed anyway. 

Showing yourself the same level of kindness and grace you show others without even thinking about it, takes effort.

Not everything is your responsibility.

If you don't share in the decision, you don't wear the weight of the consequence.

 

If the shit someone else threw hits the fan, it's not your job to clean it up. 

I'm still struggling to internalize these lessons, and I'm sure many more I haven't come across yet, at 59. I think I've got some of them down, and then catch myself falling into old habits. I share these "lessons" in hopes that someone else might benefit from them before they tend to pee a little if they get ravaged by a colossal sneeze for which they haven't had a chance to properly brace themselves... if you know, you know. 

So go forth into the fall, my friends. Get ready for your school routine, get the markers and the backpacks, organize, do what you gotta do. But, please, just remember to show yourself some kindness. Don't judge yourself more harshly than to do anyone else. Try to have fun in the midst of the chaos, the quiet comes before you know it. 

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