Sounds of Summer

The last couple of weeks have been agreeable and cool enough to have the air conditioning off and windows open.  I love this time of year – mid August – sounds throughout the day and night – creaking crickets, chirping birds, clicking bugs.  These outside sounds enhance the rhythm of our days inside and about.  These sounds remind me of moving into our much-too-suburbia home years ago.  We were floored by how many crickets we heard that first night – soft ones, noisy ones and the one we were sure was living right outside our window gracing us in vibrant serenade.

I was pondering this morning that I have never spent so many days outside as I have this year, playing, reading, running, eating, gazing, and smelling the smoky goodness of a fire.  Outside is the essence of summer.  I recall the baby bunny and blue heron I saw this morning when running, but it is the heavy, steamy smell of dew and the rhythmic thudding of my feet on the pavement that put it all together. Sights and smells and sounds woven into this summer symphony carrying me on.  

The other day we sat under trees at Independence Lake talking.  Before the park became busy and loud, I could hear those familiar echoes from home paired with the soft waves and rippling water in front of us.  As much as these sights of summer serenity bring me peace, it is the sounds that link each day and experience together into a seamless season of outside brought in, inside brought out.

I think of the years I spent too much time inside working, closed windows deafening the sounds, HVAC drowning out the life right outside. I am grateful for everyday that I am here, listening, living alongside these beautiful gifts of wonder that God has given us all.

 

Some days I crave the quiet, but when winter’s silent snow falls, I will wish for the crickets, the long crisp call of blue jays, tweet of robins and long to relive these summer days and nights.