Summer Memories...

" To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance..."

Summer memories...I was just thinking about them today; seeing that we are smack in the middle of the season. Funny how when it's Winter, we usually yearn for the warmer season and vice versa. With the tempatures reaching triple figures recently, I looked back on our snowed in days and thought "It really wasn't so bad with 12 inches of snow outside". (Don't think I felt that way back then though.)

Seasons come and season go, it's all God ordained, we can't stop them, so we all might as well settle in and enjoy the best of each one. So it is with life. There are seasons in each life and sometimes I have been guilty of not appreciating each one. It was with this frame of mind that I begin to think about past summers in my life.

As a child, summers were hot and humid in the small South Carolina town that I grew up in. But each summer was filled with lots of fun. My father and his brother built houses right across the street from one another. So my cousins and I had the advantage of never having to look for someone to play with. Our summers were filled with playing dodge ball, jump rope and hopscotch in the hot sun And the family picnics at Campbell's pond were the highlights of the season. Seems like food just taste better under that large shed at the pond. The delicacies that my Mom and Auntie pulled out of those picinic baskets make my mouth water even now.

And then there were the summer seasons with my late husband. We worked hard and looked forward to our yearly vacations. Most of the time we journeyed south to our hometown. We would start the week before packing and deciding what we would take. We would pack the car the night before so that when we woke up early the next morning there would not be anything to do but get dressed and climb into the car. We would arise before dawn to head to the nearest Dunkin Donuts to get REAL coffee and crullers. Neither of us drank caffeine, so this treat of having REAL coffee was to stimulate us to stay awake and alert for the long drive. But let me tell you, that caffeine not only kept us awake but it stimulated us to talk a mile a minute about subjects we didn't even know we knew about! Everything from A to Z, nothing was left out. The caffeine had us talking and laughing so much, a passerby would have thought we were on speed or something! And it was really funny when we jabbered so much until we would lose our train of thought and had to start a whole new subject! What could have been a boring 10 hour road trip, turned out to be the most fun, hilarious and dare I say talkative adventure of our summer! Funny! We looked forward to our summer trip and caffeine "fix".

I appreciate those times now more than ever. Loved ones have gone on and are dearly missed. Those past summer seasons are now echoes that resound in my heart when I think about how God has blessed me to have such wonderful memories. We can never bring back those seasons in our lives, but we can appreciate each one as they come, because one day those seasons will just be sweet memories to treasure...treasure them now.