I was sitting at Harvest Rd the other day, waiting for my lunch to be ready. Looking across the way, I saw a man lounging on a huge beanbag chair, set up on the grass outside his packed-to-the-gills Sprinter van.
Maybe he was on his way up- or down-Island, perhaps in the middle of a trip across Canada and back or simply at the start of his journey. He sat there, nestled in his comfy chair, face turned to the sun, eyes closed and with a little dog snoozing at his feet, taking a break before somehow, some way finding a spot to stuff the beanbag back into the van before continuing on.
It struck me that this slightly bizarre sighting is a perfect analogy for the way I feel about summer. It’s akin to my need to balance doing “all the things” with the desire to have lazy breaks – or whole empty days – in between.
Every summer we start with a bucket list … usually written up by my daughter with a mix of attainable, and wildly unattainable, goals for how she’d like to spend her days. We check off some of them over July and August, adding ideas along the way and deleting others when the weather, or timing, doesn’t work out.
Sometimes we start off the day with big plans, only to have them fall by the wayside when the appeal of an afternoon sitting outside with a book, simply enjoying the blue sky and birdsong, wins out over a day full of activity.
Sometimes we’re very successful in our summer plans, as when we visited Tribune Bay and Spider Lake with friends in early July after travelling there solo last summer and vowing: “we HAVE to share this with somebody!”
But no matter how many things we complete on our list, balanced by days we spend doing absolutely nothing but lazing around in the sun, it seems that it’s never quite enough. Not enough days in the summer nor hours in the days … but that’s kind of the essence of the season, isn’t it? If our West Coast summer wasn’t so fleeting, perhaps we wouldn’t appreciate it as much. And for that reason – among many others! – I’m forever grateful to live where we do. Happy last days of summer!
Allison Smith, Owner & Editor-in-Chief
Clothing provided and styled by Butik Naturals.
Photo Janis Jean
