Diamond-Cut Life

I try to not be crazily greedy in the summertime. But it’s difficult, after the many months of rain and cold and dark you get living so far from the equator.

Summertime is not about a greed for things or possessions. Summer, at least for me, sparks a near-manic greed for experiences, the experiences I don’t get to have during all the colder, darker, too numerous months of the year. My particular passion this summer is outdoor concerts — at the Oregon Zoo, Mt. Tabor Park, and also Edgefield, where my husband’s renewable energy program is a sponsor. We went to hear The Fray last night; they were good. During the break Colleen and I entertained ourselves with picking a few early, ripe blackberries from the ten-foot thickets that formed the east perimeter of the amphitheater.

But besides outdoor concerts there is also my running in Mt. Tabor Park near my house, my avid vegetable gardening and chicken-raising (fondly termed my urban farming) and bicycling to get around town — which, unlike the bicycling elite of Portland, I cannot bring myself to do in the winter. Hence my intensity around bicycling in the summer. More greed for experiences.

In the summer I want to be outdoors constantly. I excitedly notice things: “Oh! Look at that toddler playing in the fountain! Wow, what a great dress, where did she get it? What kind of plant is that? Oh, I can see that person is coming home from the farmers’ market.”  In the summer I am happy to sweat. I even love to hug sweaty people. Have I mentioned that I love summer?

I write fewer blog- posts in the summer than in the dark, cold months – and I feel good about that. Plenty of time to write four or five posts/week in January when there are barely eight hours of sunlight per day. I feel confident that you, my readers understand – in the summer you are quite likely spending more time outdoors, and less time indoors on the computer, yourselves. Which would make perfect sense to me.

Related Posts:

• This & That In Mid-July
• Panhandling At The Oregon Zoo
• Bicycling In The Mist
• Bear Stearns: The Money-Drunk Empire Builder
• Bike. Walk. Joy.