A Spring of Joy

The fragrance of honeysuckle hangs in the air, an intoxicating fog filling our backyard. The crickets are starting to chirp as evenings wane. We’ve seen our first few lightning bugs, drunk our first Slurpees, and run around barefoot in the backyard. Summer’s warm days are here as we make our way to baseball games and cheer as Bear slams the ball to the outfield (there’s a reason his coach nicknamed him lumberjack a couple years ago–he has quite a swing!).

We are ready. The lazy, hazy days of summer beckon.

Oh, honey, we’ll be okay…
Sun kissed skin on my lips.
Thank the Lord I am here and now, here and now.
Fireflies after dark.
Bless your soul, we are here and now, here and now.

We spent last weekend camping with friends, dancing late into the night at a wedding, splashing in the creek catching crawfish, chatting late into the night around the fire, and eating fabulous foods.

Today I picked up the children from school and we joined a plethora of friends for lunch and watched them play a game of extreme duck, duck goose, laughing, care free, catching up. We are so glad for school to be over. Oh how I miss them when they are gone!

We don’t know for sure what this summer will look like. Cancer has interrupted our lives and we are learning how to live life with chemo trips and pain and fatigue, but we are still living.

We are still chanting our summer mantra and filling our days full…

The only option as I see it, is this delicate weaving of action and celebration, of intention and expectation. Let’s act, read, protest, protect, picket, learn, advocate for, fight against, but let’s be careful that in the midst of all that accomplishing and organizing, we don’t bulldoze over a world that’s teeming with beauty and hope and redemption all around us and in the meantime. Before the wars are over, before the cures are found, before the wrongs are righted, Today, humble Today, presents itself to us with all the ceremony and bling of a glittering diamond ring. “Wear me, ” it says, “Wear me out. Love me, dive into me, discover me,” it pleads with us.
(~from Shauna Niequist’s “Cold Tangerines”)

Tonight we will watch my nephew graduate from high school. Tomorrow it’s party time and baseball time and family time. Sunday it’s our celebration dinner together and s’mores with friends. Floors are stained brown from dirty bare feet dancing across them, piles of Legos cover the playroom floor, knees have been skinned, bugs have bitten, farmer’s tans have begun, the library books are being read… our summer is beginning with a bang!

We will work hard to live and not be lazy yet to enjoy life and not work too much.

We will figure out how to spend our days with necessary structure but not so much that we are stifled.

We will learn more of what love looks like in the every day moments together.

We will laugh and cry and hug and fight and forgive and teach and pray and read and write and bake and can and celebrate and LIVE.

Our already full hearts will expand to fill up with more of each other… more of us as we wear each day out.

Each day beckons to dive in, discover, love and live! We will work hard to not let cancer stop us, (although we know reality means it will slow us down). But we will be together. We will live together.

Once again I created our annual summer basket full of fun things for our summer adventures (since last year’s basket held a puppy, I’m hoping this year’s basket will still be okay).

Our summer list is ready.

And so are we!