We’ve been having a beautiful start to summer this year where I am.

It’s been sunny and warm but not too hot or humid, at least for the most part.

And I’ve been loving it.

I’ve been spending more time outside, sitting, reading, watching green leaves blow in the wind. I’ve been getting extra walks in later in the day because something in me just needs to be outside a little longer.

I have a nice little setup underneath a big branch of a pine tree, where I lay out blankets that I can stretch or meditate on. Beside it, I put a comfortable lawn chair that I sit in when I want to read. I’ve been spending a couple hours out there in the afternoons when I can, when the temperature is pleasant and it’s not too humid and I have the time. It’s been one of my favorite discoveries, that place where I can sit outside and relax under the perfect amount of shade and dappled sunlight.

This past weekend when I went out there, I felt too tired to read, so I leaned back in that chair and closed my eyes. It was over 80, but the wind kept me cool and it was so strong it sounded like the ocean. I’m not sure anything could have felt more wonderful in that moment. I didn’t quite fall asleep, but I rested, deeply.

And I let myself be there, like that, until I felt ready to shift into something else, until I felt ready to read. I blinked my eyes open slowly and looked at the blue sky, the trees, listened to the world around me.

That’s how I want to spend this summer: embracing the moments I’m in, soaking in the beauty of the warmth and the sunshine in a way that feels right to me.

In the past, I’d have moments when I felt like I was forcing myself to stay outside just because it was summer and I knew it would eventually be cold again, but I don’t do that anymore. I spend time outside because I want to be outside, and when I want to do something else or work on something inside, I do that instead.

It’s not about forcing ourselves to be outside every single second of summer, but about flowing with what we naturally feel like doing, giving ourselves the space to do what we feel like doing when we can, when we have the time.

Here are 10 quotes to help you embrace the beauty of summer:

1. “And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

2. “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” ~ John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

3. “Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” ~ Henry James

4. “Summertime is always the best of what might be.”~ Charles Bowden

5. “The earth laughs in flowers.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. “A flower blossoms for its own joy.” ~ Oscar Wilde

7. “Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair and let us huddle together as darkness takes over. We are at home amidst the birds and the trees, for we are children of nature.” ~ Susan Polis Schutz

8. “One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”~ Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle

9. “Smell the sea, and feel the sky. Let your soul and spirit fly.” ~ Van Morrison

10. “I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.” ~ L. M. Montgomery, Anne of the Island

~

You might like this one too: