Summer--Frustration and Fulfillment

Summer is much more than a season. It is a symbol—a pattern of moods, of activities, attitudes. It is growing things, doing things, sometimes with intensity of travel, vacationing, and sometimes overworking at playing and seeking pleasure.

Summer is a season that many seek to hold to, while letting it rush past without accomplishing intended purposes—season both of frustration and fulfillment.

It is the flashing back of heat from city walls and surfaces, and the beauty of the growing fields as God and nature provide sustenance for the future.

In this refulgent summer,” wrote Emerson, “it has been a luxury to draw the breath of life. The grass grows, the buds burst, the meadow is . . . sweet with the breadth of . . . the new hay. Night brings no gloom to the heart with its welcome shade. Through the transparent darkness the stars pour their almost spiritual rays. . . . The mystery of nature was never displayed more happily. . . . One is constrained to respect the perfection of this world . . . . How wide, how rich, what invitation . . . it gives to every faculty of man! In its fruitful soils; in its navigable sea; in its mountains of metal and stone; in its forest of all woods; in its animals; in the powers and path of light, heat attraction, and life—it is well worth the pith and heart of [man] to subdue and enjoy it . . . . A more sweet, and overpowering beauty appears to man when his heart and mind open to the sentiment of virtue. Then . . . he learns that his being is without bound; then is the end of the creation answered, and God is well pleased.”

God, grant that we may use the summer thoughtfully for its many good and well-intended uses, for growth and for growing; for work, and for well and wisely considered relief from work; for a change of pace, for moderate diversion and refreshment that temperately add to and to not dissipate the strength of mind and body and spirit. May we use the summer as a blessed season, not to run for the illusions of a fleeting, passing pleasure or shallow and unsatisfying pursuits, but for a fullness of good and happy uses, and with memories that will bring a happy and quiet content as the summer days move quickly to another season.