May 6th, 2019
Posted on February 25, 2021
Every summer, it seems I become infatuated with the stopping of time. I struggle between being ‘present’ in every moment and remembering to hold on tightly to fleeting moments past. Ideas of youth and aging become distorted as time moves forward, and I feel older but increasingly naïve about my place in this world. Summer is a great time to question and reflect, because the glossy sheen of sunshine and warmth on skin makes every daunting thought seem palatable, unserious, even intriguing. I’m in awe of the sun that never seems to set here. Time seems to expand – as if some omnipotent being was pushing me to look outside myself, to see how we all interact with each other and nature. I never thought I could appreciate shades of green quite like I do now. When nothing in particular is wrong, and it becomes readily accepted that we survive in constant flux, what do you look at? Where do you go from here? This season is a blank slate to revisit everything that makes a person, to go where the wind takes you, to say a few more hellos – summer seems to suggest how important it is to be inquisitive. The way the breeze flows between the leaves, diffusing and dispersing light that hits the sunken asphalt in a way that just makes you long for all the good feelings that ever existed in your lifetime. When the expanse of summer reality seems to overshadow every protruding dream, where do you go from here? When condensation from iced coffee pools into liquid circles marking the table– the round puddle is left behind when you get up to leave – the liquid claims, “this seat was taken not long ago”, “you are travelling a trodden path”, “what adventures await you at this table?” This season teases me, making everything I’d consider an ugly nuisance beautiful, noticeable. Whispering in the wind that everything is within my reach. Summer is quite the dream.