Memories are a wonderful thing. In an instant you can conjure up a scene from the past and recall the sights, smells and sounds of a bygone time.
The other day something led me (in my mind) back to the woods where I played as a child. In the woods behind our house, my cousins and I climbed trees, waded creeks and daydreamed.
When I think of those summer days in the woods, I can see the green trees and feel the rising humidity. The scent of honeysuckle is heavy in the thick summer air. There's the smell of freshly mown lawns and newly cut hay. The sound of a transistor radio. The smell of suntan lotion. The taste of an icy-cold Coca Cola — left in the freezer just long enough to make it a little slushy (precursor to the Icee?).
I recall riding out a thunderstorm in the barn loft. Talking about boys we liked (and girls we didn't). Dreaming of … what? I'm not sure. To be famous, perhaps? To meet and marry the heartthrob of the moment? I realize now that I had no plan back then. I didn't really have a vision of what my future might look like — what sort of job I would have or where I live. That didn't come until much later. I suppose the seeds of writing were there even then (as noted in my post on the typewriter). Perhaps I was simply a dreamer. Content to take life as it came and just see what happened.
And perhaps that's the key. To take life as it comes and see what happens. That doesn't mean you don't plan or set goals. It just means that, like that young girl, we are willing to wait and see what life holds in store ... and not feel the need to control it.
Here's to hot summer days, hanging out in barn lofts — whether literal or metaphorical — and taking life as it comes.
What are you trying to control? Are you able to relax and accept life as it unfolds? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
The other day something led me (in my mind) back to the woods where I played as a child. In the woods behind our house, my cousins and I climbed trees, waded creeks and daydreamed.
When I think of those summer days in the woods, I can see the green trees and feel the rising humidity. The scent of honeysuckle is heavy in the thick summer air. There's the smell of freshly mown lawns and newly cut hay. The sound of a transistor radio. The smell of suntan lotion. The taste of an icy-cold Coca Cola — left in the freezer just long enough to make it a little slushy (precursor to the Icee?).
I recall riding out a thunderstorm in the barn loft. Talking about boys we liked (and girls we didn't). Dreaming of … what? I'm not sure. To be famous, perhaps? To meet and marry the heartthrob of the moment? I realize now that I had no plan back then. I didn't really have a vision of what my future might look like — what sort of job I would have or where I live. That didn't come until much later. I suppose the seeds of writing were there even then (as noted in my post on the typewriter). Perhaps I was simply a dreamer. Content to take life as it came and just see what happened.
And perhaps that's the key. To take life as it comes and see what happens. That doesn't mean you don't plan or set goals. It just means that, like that young girl, we are willing to wait and see what life holds in store ... and not feel the need to control it.
Here's to hot summer days, hanging out in barn lofts — whether literal or metaphorical — and taking life as it comes.
What are you trying to control? Are you able to relax and accept life as it unfolds? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
