By July, summer has settled into a different rhythm. The days feel longer, and schedules have loosened a bit. Even if our routines haven’t changed that much, there’s an illusion that we have more time and can move at a slower pace. Life feels a little lighter.
I’ve always enjoyed that summertime feeling of ease, even before I defined it for myself. It’s a time to simplify and make things less complicated. We’ve become extremely good at adding things to our plates: one more unnecessary task or another idea we couldn’t resist. Before long, something that should be simple gets buried under the additions. It can happen so gradually and in different situations that we don’t notice we’re doing it.
Take Entertaining, for Example
I used to be that person who cooked everything from scratch. You know the one.
When I hosted a summer party, I’d go all out, and for decades, I loved doing it. But when the gathering was over, I’d always think I hadn’t spent enough time with my friends. I was too busy worrying about what was on the grill or rushing to pull the blueberry crumble out of the oven before it burned. At the end of the night, I was exhausted from trying to do too much.
I’ve done a complete 180 since then. I tossed aside my Martha Stewart/B. Smith ways and keep my gatherings as simple as possible. There’s always plenty of delicious food, but I’m no longer running around missing out on good conversations and fun. I’ve found my sense of ease when it comes to summer entertaining.
Besides those times when we’re trying to do the most, we can lose our sense of ease in other ways. We might begin something new with a clear idea of what we want to accomplish, only to become distracted. We read or watch a video (thank you, YouTube) that tells us there’s a better way, so we add it. Someone offers a new idea, and we pile that in too. Suddenly, we’re standing in the middle of a more complicated version of something that worked fine before we fiddled with it.
Those Shiny Ideas
Chasing shiny ideas is like staring into a mirrored disco ball. All those small pieces of light are moving in different directions. Each one catches your eye for a moment and mesmerizes you. Your eyes and attention dart from spot to spot until you’ve forgotten where you were looking in the first place.
Finding ease can mean remembering what we were trying to do before we became distracted. Ease can also come from slowing down and paying attention to the unnecessary obstacles we create for ourselves. It’s not until we’re feeling frustrated that we notice the built-in complications that made things harder from the start.
Planning a trip comes to mind. Imagine the least expensive flight leaves at an inconvenient time and has two connections. It turns what would have been a few easy hours of travel into a frantic, eight-hour day. The lower price is tempting. Who doesn’t want to save money?
But I’ve learned from traveling frequently to consider the full experience. How tired will I be when I arrive, and how much time will I lose? How many ways am I setting myself up for something to go wrong? A missed flight connection is stress nobody ever signs up for. There’s no ease or fun in that.
I’d rather spot possible complications early than spend my energy solving problems I didn’t need to create.
Summer makes me want to find ways to bring ease into everything I do.
A Warm Breeze
My favorite summer evenings are the simplest ones. The temperature finally drops after a hot day. The light lingers a little longer, and a warm breeze moves through the air.
I’ve felt breezes like that when I lived in the desert. They don’t arrive with much force. In fact, you barely notice them at first. Then the air swirls around you, gently enough that you don’t feel pushed in any particular direction. You feel held by it.
That’s what ease feels like to me.
Knowing what is necessary and letting go of what isn’t. Then, allowing yourself to move through life with a little less resistance.
Like a warm summer breeze.