My favorite day of the year is the first day of summer.

This isn’t determined by the date, by school ending, or by any calendar. It is the first time I see a group of kids riding their bikes with no parents in sight. Wind in their hair, freedom in their eyes and pure elation in their smiles. In that moment, I take a deep breath, giggle with delight and know that summer is here.

During the school year, we spend our days running from one thing to another, on strict timelines, with bedtimes and bathtimes and soccer and music and swim and art and football and basketball and, of course, Chiefs games. Summer is a reprieve from all of it. There is time for lazy mornings and late nights, s’mores, friends and mess. Running through the sprinklers counts as a bath, and the only place we need to be is right where we are.

I fondly think back to summer as a kid, living in my bathing suit with popsicle juice running down my arm. I can still taste the smell of Banana Boat sunscreen as we floated in and out of the pool all day and spent nights star gazing in the backyard. Summertime was a real part of my childhood. It was the time of year when there was a blatant absence of time.

In contemporary parenting, we talk a lot about creating core memories for our children. For me, that is nostalgia for summer, for camp, for a time when my parents weren’t running me around. This is my personal invitation, if it works for your family, to ignore time. Stay up late with your kids. Put down your phone and have an epic water fight in the pool. Play with bubbles and sidewalk chalk. Eat a popsicle like you are 10 years old again. Find a way to enjoy the summer the way you did when you were a kid.

If you need a reminder, come to The J for ten minutes on any day this summer. You will quickly be reminded of the carefree vibe of children in the summer. It’s loud, it’s messy, and it’s truly the best.

In Judaism, we have a blessing for opening our eyes, for starting something new, even for eating a good snack. Summer is a time full of blessings all around us, the sun is shining, the pool is open, and it’s okay to eat a popsicle any time of day. The little things in summer are what matter the most. 

 

A blessing for summer

By Beth Kander-Dauphin

For the lengthening of days, stretching sunshine far past its winter bedtime,

For the bright blues and vibrant green and pops of color filling the warm world,

For the unrelenting humidity that reminds us to savor the sweetness of cooler breezes,

For all the sounds of summer – the jingling of ice cream trucks, joyful shouts of children splashing, lingering laughter over meals shared on patios, the shuddering clap of thunderstorms demonstrating something more powerful than us,

For summer camps and vacations and time spent outside,

For good AC when we’re stuck indoors,

For sun,

For shade,

For all these things and more, we thank You.

And may God bless and keep the mosquitoes… far away from us.

Amen.