Summer Time of Life



2009 Summer Groutfest


                                                                      

                                                                                           

2010 Groutfest

Summer time and the livin' is easy.
Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high.
Oh, your Daddy's rich and your Mammy's
good lookin', So hush little baby, don't you cry.
                                                                                One of these mornin's you're gonna rise up singin'
then you'll spread your wings and you'll take to the sky
until that mornin', there is nothing to harm you
with Daddy and Mammy standin by.
George Gershwin/ Ira Gershwin

I guess there are probably people who don't love summer. They're probably living in climates like Texas, where the temperatures hit the triple digits and stay there for weeks or even months on end. I would hate that too, so I count my lucky stars that I live in a climate that is drizzly and grey for many months but blissfully beautiful for most of the summer.

2011 summer Groutfest

My sister Sally starts in May with the refrain, "I'm gonna hit the deck" meaning that she moves most of her more important possessions outside to her covered deck with the chaise lounge. There she encamps with her books, radio and drinks, spending the best time gazing into the sky. I do the same. I love my deck and watching the birds dive and whirl in the air catching bugs and building their nests.

We had an unusually cool spring so these last few days of sun and warmth has put me in mind that everyone needs to have a summer. Summer is full of hope and celebration.

In my work that is exactly what we create for the clients who come in mostly with a winter mindset. They desparately need some hope and celebration in their lives. The clients drag themselves bravely through the door and await the opening, the ray of sunshine that can come into their life through change. Many of these clients are facing the storms of life: betrayal, divorce, illness, death, abandonment, abuse, fear, uncertainty and boredom. While I have no magic wand, I prefer to pretend that I do. Hope can be magical and can expand their world and mindset, bringing a welcome change into their world.

When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high                            and don't be afraid of the dark.                                                                                                                 At the end of the storm is a gentle rain                                                   and the sweet silver song of the lark.

Rogers and Hammerstein

This is not to suggest that I'm all Mary Poppins about people's lives, far from it. I realize that first we have to slug through the slush, the winds, the rain and the tears before peering into the sunrise. "Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you'll never walk alone." So to those brave souls that come into counseling I make sure that they are not walking alone.

I just read two books that really underline this philosophy that were wildly different in their premise and style. The first by Anne Tyler, The Beginners Good Bye, explores the life of a man whose wife has died. We follow his ruminations of the perfection of that marriage which keeps him clinging to some false assumptions. He is unwilling to let go and have anything or anyone new come into his life. There is a gradual awakening and a willingness to change that is delightful in the telling. The second book is by Anne Patchett, State of Wonder, in which a youngish woman is sent into the Amazon to find her old professor. She is grieving for a colleague who has died there and encouraged by this wife to try to find his body. The wife never loses faith, the youngish woman loses faith and finds it, and along the way regains a sense of self and a new way of looking at life. Both novels explore change and hope. Both are excellent in their own ways.

The reason I'm thinking about hope and the wonders of looking forward is it's so easy to be in the summer of life. This, needless to say is when everything is going well. It is so difficult when internally you have the storms of life crashing all around you.

The truth about life is the situation is hopeless: we're all going to die. However, the circumstances can be hopeful. This was sadly illustrated in the movie, "Life Is Beautiful", where a Dad tries to makes the most horrific of circumstances [Ausweitz] into a comedy for his son. Tragic yet funny. Quite an effort, but I contend well worth it. You can always sing, hum and laugh each day of your life.

That is one reason that we have Groutfest every year, we want to celebrate all being together and there are no better celebrants that children--- lots and lots of children. My mother's nineteen and twentieth great grandchildren were just born, my youngest grands are turning seven, our 44th anniversary is this month, everyone's turning a year older--- see there are plenty of reasons to celebrate. So why wait? Celebrate the summers of our lives.

susansmagicfeather copyright 2012 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved