Happy Summer Days

Summer is my very favorite time of the year. Do you remember when getting your ‘colors’ done was so trendy? We all had a season that coordinated with our basic coloring. I don’t know if this is a fact, but I do think that we all have a season that fits us just right. In the summer, I feel alive, energetic, happy, hopeful and productive. July is my absolute perfect month. It might be because the days are so long, hot, and slowed down. It gives me more time. I don’t feel so rushed and pressured. But, almost immediately after the longest day of the year, I start to feel that it’s coming to a close. I also remember the time when I realized that not everyone feels this way; not everyone is prone to what can be an overwhelming sensitivity to their environment. How I envied them. To go about my daily business, unaffected by my surroundings, is not a small challenge. However, it is worth challenging. Through noticing and testing my thinking, I’ve proven that I do have some control over this. When a wave of uninvited feelings try to hijack my day, I’m mostly able to take a step back and observe what’s happening. Often, nowadays, I can get a handle on it, other times, it takes more work.

This kind sensitivity is a two edged sword. One time, early in my recognition of this trait, I shared it with a friend. Whining away, I said that I wished I wasn’t this way and that I could get so much more accomplished if I didn’t notice all of this outside stimuli around me, other people’s moods, and so on. Calmly, she said to me, ‘But this is what makes you so lovable and kind to others.’ Whaaaaat????? I had NEVER looked at it like this. It’s always felt like it holds me back. It never occurred to me that others might see it as something good, maybe something they wished they had more of. I wish I could say that solved the problem for me forever, but it didn’t. What it did to, though, was to allow me to see things in a different light, from a different perspective. And then to think about both views and decide which viewpoint brings about the better results. I can still be sensitive to others’, the seasons, the world; but shifting a little bit so that this sensitivity trait is a useful, productive tool, rather than a feeling-crushing, ransacking, undisciplined mood-bully is really the only way to move forward. One time, a very wise woman told me to ‘be the thermostat, not the thermometer’. In other words, set the temperature, don’t read the temperature.

Enjoy each and every glorious moment this summer.