Finally - sweet summertime!

I am so excited; I don’t even know what to do. Enjoy the moments is what I figured out so far. Yesterday for my first day off, we went to the pool for a bit, visited a friend, cleaned the house, and went back to the pool. (We have a city pool nearby, it's wonderful.) Then it rained. So after supper, we went for a lovely walk and jumped in all of the puddles. While we're splashing, my daughter looks over and asks if I am enjoying reliving my childhood. Yes I was, those moments I was just in the moment. I am trying to work on that and it is hard to stop the endless stream of worries, list making, and what should I do next in my brain. I am reading Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth; okay - honestly, it is one of the five books I have been reading for a couple months. However, I would like to be enlightened; I would like to help the world be a better place by dealing with things in a calm Zenlike manner so others can emulate me. The first thing is staying in the now. I am going to try to stay in the now, although I have to fly in the beginning of august and I can’t help worrying about that, and then I remember I’m not supposed to worry and push it away. Well with all of those thoughts going on, how can I stay in the now?

Another book I am chipping away at his Anna Karenina, a classic, it is my second time around but the first time was twenty years ago. I have spent these first two days of vacation after my child is in bed finishing Life of Pi. Again brings another question for Tolle, how can I stay in the now when I prefer to slip away into someone else’s reality or story. If you haven’t read this book, you will love it. Pi ends up in a lifeboat on the Pacific with a Bengal tiger. Who even thinks of that, well Yann Martel I guess. This book is so wonderful, I was up until 1:30 in the morning reading, and I couldn’t put it down until my eyes started shutting. I recommend this book to everyone. I do admit to my book addiction and admitting it is the first step. The second step is scoring the best edition of Life of Pi with illustrations by Tomislav Torjanac. The illustrations are pictures of incredible paintings the vivid colors, and the depictions actually match what you see in your mind’s eye as you read. Books like this remind you of the triumph of the human spirit and even though it is a novel the reader questions what he or she really has to bitch about in life. I'm thinking I'm good!

I have Water for Elephants and Sea Glasson deck, finds from a yard sale for 50 cents. Yard sales rock to buy books! Ooh, and I want to read Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and then I will have read everything she’s done. She is absolutely transporting. I have Teaching a Stone to Talk as my pocketbook book right now. Short stories are excellent for pocketbook books or car books. Before that, I had Andre Dupuis, his short stories are modern and realistic.

Okay so summer goals, love my kid, write my book but not stress about it, and read books as I did when I was a teen. I remember I used to take two brown bags full of books from the bookmobile at the beginning of every summer and give them back read at the end. They would park at the school the first week of summer vacation. It was in a coverted jetstream-like camper, silver and tubular, and inside was like heaven, books, books, and more books. My folks knew that it would take me a while to pick out what I wanted, so I always got to go alone. Although carrying the books home was a bear, I remember trying to run so I could start reading faster. Every year the books changed too, so you could never read through the whole bookmobile. If I won the lottery maybe I would start a bookmobile somewhere in the world where kids need more books. The bookmobile and summer, wow. It is funny how the older I get, or maybe it is just because of what I’m experience this year, that the more I remember about my youth. I remember gardening with my dad, so we planted a small garden outback (the landlord hasn't commented yet. I remember joy. Pure joy at the littlest things, a new book, running in the hose, building a bike ramp and jumping, playing kickball in the street at night with all the neighborhood kids. Joy because there was no tomorrow to worry about and no what I said or did yesterday or today to dwell on. This summer (when I'm not writing my book) I will play games, jump in puddles, paint pictures, read books, take nature walks, make crafts, dig in the dirt, and watch my child smile. I will strive to stay in the now and let the now be play and joy.

I wish you all play and joy this summer as well. Smiles on rainy days are as warming as the sun!