Summer is a great time of year for me. I love getting up early, say about 5:00-to-6:00 AM, and going outside. It’s cool and quiet that time of the day. The birds are active. Before it gets hot I will do some yard work; mostly things like watering my plants, tending my garden (the picture is of my blackberry bushes. Click for an enlarged view), and digging in the dirt. I like getting my hands in the soil. It makes me feel connected to the earth; to myself; especially to God. Simple pleasures like these mean more to me at this stage of my life than they did when I was younger. Strange as it sounds, I like the humidity too.
The days are long, which is something else that I like about summer. By getting up early, it means I will have a fourteen or fifteen hour day – most of it daylight. I exercise almost every day before I go into work. Then I’ll put in eight hours or so, usually without a lunch break (I love my work so much that I simply work all day long, as do all our staff). Then I have a few hours after work for personal time; usually in my back yard again doing some more “gardening stuff.”
Then there are the outdoor recreational activities that summer offers. Things like motorcycle riding, vacations, boating excursions, day trips, picnics, going to the beach, taking drives through Blackwater State Forest
Summer gives me the chance to work hard outdoors. I like working hard. I mean hard physical labor. It releases tension. It also provides me with a sense of accomplishment when I see a task completed (something that office work fails to do). It’s a good form of exercise too. By tilling in the soil I am reminded of my connection to Adam, the father of the human race. Because of his failure I have to labor under the curse “by the sweat of my brow among the thorns and thistles” (Genesis 3:17-19). Digging in the dirt keeps things in perspective for me. As I am pulling weeds and feel the strain in my back, I think back to Eden
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