Summertime

Dear Friends of Switchback,

​Summertime is here and with it, comes my annual list of things to do around the house. As a traveling musician, I watch as the items languish through most of the year.  The fence in the front yard that is slowly de-constructing itself. “Well, that can wait until Summer,” I tell myself. The peeling paint on the house that is screaming to be scraped and repainted.  “Summer,” I tell myself. The tree whose limbs are in need of being trimmed, not to mention the half dead peach tree that needs total removal. You guessed it. Summer. The list and that mantra, “Summer” sustains me through the winter.  I can look at the dead garden in January and see myself planting and weeding in Summer. The peeling paint in wintertime is not so awful. I tell myself that mother nature is helping me scrape and so I will be that further ahead come Summer. 


And, I can keep on with the list.  It is a slowly expanding list of things that are not all centered around work.  The bikes that sit under that porch that we are supposed to ride as soon as I drag them to the bike shop to get overhauled.  The fishing pole strung with old fishing line and a tackle box buried somewhere. Even the simple pleasures somehow are imbued with a sense of urgency.  June 21 and already the days are starting to get shorter. By the time my birthday arrives, Summer is almost half over.  

At this point is when I stop myself to look around and marvel.  Yes, more than half the things I am supposed to do this Summer, work and play, will not happen.  And those that do, the suppers outside, watching Annie paint a mural along Lake Michigan, mowing the lawn, (then the neighbors lawn just to be a good neighbor). sending pictures of the blooming flowers that somehow managed to bloom and receiving garden pictures from my business manager Sue, seeing Aine engage in the midwestern ritual of catching fireflies and even the fact that the other day I actually saw a hummingbird use our hummingbird feeder! All of those are small celebrations of being alive during this most enjoyable time of the year. 

And I have to remind myself that my self imposed angst about the list of things I need to do will never match the joy of the things I choose to do and observe this Summer.   So, I encourage you to get out there and enjoy this special time of the year. I know I am going to...as soon as I belt sand some old paint off the south side of the house.