Dear Friends,
When I remember childhood summer days, I remember sun and water. Wet grass squeaking between my toes as we ran through sprinklers in the yard. Wrinkled fingers and waterlogged ears from countless hours at the city pool. Barefoot running through neighbor’s yards and pastureland as we played every game imaginable, listening to the chatter of songbirds, gazing at golden sunlight streaming through leaves, setting up makeshift tents in the backyards and spending nights telling ghost stories so no one could sleep. I remember reading books that I wanted to read, climbing high in the maple tree and hiding from the world. I remember eating apples and cherries and vegetables fresh from the garden.
Mostly, I remember loving it all. I loved the blaze of sun on skin; the cold shock of plunging into cold water and rising, weightless, to break the surface. I remember the beauty and solitude of being at the lake. In summer, I learned to love things that I chose for myself, not that were chosen for me. The long, leisure-days of summer helped to form my soul.
Summer is a sacred season, for in summertime children develop habits of leisure that last a lifetime. In the book Happiness and Contemplation, Joseph Pieper writes, “Repose, leisure, peace, belong among the elements of happiness. If we have not escaped from harried rush, from mad pursuit, from unrest, from the necessity of care, we are not happy.” This is true for adults and children. During summer, we give children the space and time to pursue the holy leisure that shapes the course of their lives. Do we allow ourselves the same space and time to pursue holy leisure?
I have reflected before in this space about the uniqueness of summer. You may remember that I encouraged you to enjoy these days which pass all too quickly. Last year, I recommended that the standard to use to judge the worthiness of your summer activities was a line I learned from an old priest when I was young, “If you can praise God at the end of it, then it was good.”
Let me add the ancient wisdom of the transcendentals to your criteria this year for judging a successful summer. Did you seek beauty? Did you seek goodness? Did you seek truth? For if you sought these things in the midst of leisure and play, then you found God whether you were aware of it or not. And maybe, just maybe at some point this summer you will laugh and smile with the same abandon as you did when you were just a child. And God will laugh and smile with you.
Peace,
Fr. Damian