Summer
Just the word makes you relax, reminisce and smile. As we approach the mid-point of Summer, are you enjoying summer?
Why do we love summer?
Let us count the ways with these five things to savor about this summer, today, here and now:
1. Enjoy Summer’s Simple Pleasures
Joy comes easier in the summer.
Joy certainly comes from simple things like sharing an ice cream cone with your best friend or lying on your tummy in the grass…or catching lightning bugs, listening to the July rain on the front porch or dangling your feet and legs into cool pool water…
…Or watching the summer breeze caress the curtains in the open window.
2. Savor the Soothing Summer Sun
The warm summer sun on our bare skin is delightful.
But beyond the simple pleasure of glorious summer sun, there are many psychological and health benefits to sunshine. Did you know that your body turns sunlight into health-enhancing Vitamin D, known to reduce risk of some of the most common cancers and contribute to bone health?
What we instinctively know has been proven by scientific research: Sunshine elevates our mood, our outlook and even helps increase sleep quality.
Just don’t forget the sunscreen to protect your skin health.
3. Savor summer’s invitation to escape to another time and place.
Summer is the traditional time for getting away for a few days or a week or two. That gives us a much-needed opportunity to unplug and unwind and have new experiences that cause the day-to-day routine and problems to fade for awhile.
One of the best parts of escaping, even for a short while: Summer vacations help you reconnect with yourself. They provide a time for self-discovery.
Reconnecting with yourself increases your creativity and productivity, elevates your mood and enhances your physical and spiritual health.
Summer allows, invites, beckons us to get away, even in small ways when we let our guard down and enjoy child-like pleasures.
And then, somehow, those problems back home seem less insurmountable.
4. Savor the beauty of summer flowers
April showers and May flowers are lovely, but there are no flowers like the flowers of summer. Are hydrangeas your favorite?
Or are you partial to peonies?
5. Savor the possibilities of summer.
Summer is the season of hope and promise. Our spirits take on a new vibrancy.
In conclusion, may you savor this summer as never before. And may you always keep a bit of summer deep within, no matter what the season.
Kim Darden Shaver
for
Leslie Hendrix Wood
Founder, Editor In Chief of Hadley Court
Gracious Living. Timeless Design. Family Traditions.
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Photos via: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
