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Summer is officially here, and the National Weather Service says it will feel like summer for the next few days as temperatures are expected to hit the 90s and stay there for much of the coming week.
The summer solstice occurred on Friday, June 20, making it the longest day and shortest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, according to the National Weather Service. At the summer solstice, the sun travels the longest path through the sky, and that day therefore has the most daylight.
According to the astronomical definition of the seasons, the summer solstice also marks the beginning of summer, which lasts until the autumnal equinox (Sept. 22 or 23 in the Northern Hemisphere). One old saying about the summer solstice is: “It only gets lighter from here …”
For many, summer means vacation time — time for a beach vacation, a cruise or just hanging out with family and friends.
The wisdom of summer teaches us to slow down, to enjoy being outside, whether on the streets downtown taking in some music or just reading a book on a hot day. It’s the season for relaxing and the “pursuit of happiness.”
In his book The Rural Life, Verlyn Klinkenborg referred to summer as “the season in which leisure swells like a tomato, until it’s round and red and ripe.” Take a slow, juicy bite.
Summer can be a very rejuvenating time. One of the best parts of being out of school for the summer is the extra free time you can use to spend time with your loved ones. Some students live a significant distance from campus, so being home allows them to get in quality time that would otherwise be broken up across a few weekends. Designating time to hang out with your friends and family can be a great way to keep yourself from succumbing to the summer slump.
“Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August,” author Jenny Han wrote.
So dig in and make some new memories, even if your plans are no more ambitious than to take naps, read outside, sleep in a tent and float in a pool. Not everyone can afford sailing trips and Caribbean vacations, but many of summer’s greatest pleasures are simple and inexpensive.
Summer is full of simple outdoor pleasures, such as the feeling of sun and wind on your arms and legs, freshly uncovered. The season contains a kind of happiness born out of escapes of any kind. It tastes of roasted vegetables and fruit so ripe it dribbles off your chin.
This is the time to get out as much as you can for as long as you can. Tend the garden, climb the trees, swim in the waves, eat outdoors, take a walk at dusk and sleep under the stars.
In the United States, summer is bookended by two holidays that honor work and sacrifice.
Memorial Day reminds us to look back with gratitude and honor soldiers who died in battle. And Labor Day (celebrated in May in most other countries) honors work by giving many of us a break from it. The latter holiday was signed into law in the summer of 1894.
It’s a metaphor. Between sacrifice and work — and maybe because of it — we have freedom. Summer is the season of self-autonomy. It’s a wonderful time, a season of youth, activity, celebration and revolution. It encourages dancing under sprinklers, sparklers and stars. It beckons us on long bike rides and hikes. It’s the season of swimming and tents, of giving in to the gravitational pull of trees and bodies of water.
But conversely, it’s also the time to do as little as possible. It’s the season to just … be.
Philosopher Sam Keen wrote: “Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.”
But at the same time, it goes by too quickly — like a popsicle fragment melting on the sidewalk.
So, enjoy your summer … fall will be here quicker than you think.