Favorite Things of Summer

On Sunday, I was prepared to give a Children's Message, though there were no children there.

I was going to ask them what they liked most about summer.  After they finished answering that, my plan was to tell them what I love most about summer.   Of course, there are many things not included in the children's message---so here are just a couple of examples:  sleeping with the window open and the fan blowing in the cool night air;  playing tennis;  not wearing a coat or sweater or jacket.

But mostly, the thing I love about summer is watching things grow!!   My lovely "prop-hatbox" was filled with examples.

As props, I had an ear of corn and a peach.  Those there are two things that we only eat fresh in the summer---corn on the cob, which Gerry loves, and peaches, which I love. I buy them from the farm stand, but never from the store.

In my box of goodies, I had a vase of hydrangea blue flowers, which are just breathtaking in their beauty.  There was a zucchini,  which grows abundantly in my garden.

But I am also fascinated by the way things grow--- how a bush, which dies off in the winter, knows how to grow bigger this year than it was last year!  It obviously remembers!  And a seed remembers who it is supposed to be.

I read that you could cut off the bottom of a head of lettuce and it would grow again from there!  I tried that, and lo and behold,  it is true.  Put the bottom portion into water, and it knows it is supposed to grow.

All of us are supposed to grow, of course.  Not just physically,  but mentally and spiritually as well.   Mentally by lifelong learning and curiosity.  Spiritually by being kind to one another, and helpful, and building up!