Two Maple Keys: June 2014

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Lovely Summer Things

The last time I had a free summer, I had so many plans! See below: Summer 2011

This is what I want my summer to be: beaches and bikes and bright moments.
Feel free to join me in any of the following:
1) volunteering at a beer festival.
2) going to the beach.
3) reading in parks.
4) browsing farmers' markets
5) dressing up
6) dressing down
7) CAMPING
8) taking dance classes
9) going to a play
10) barbequeing

Then I broke my arm while biking downtown and I felt like a lot of this went down the drain. It was pretty defeating. I don't remember much about that summer beyond that.

Let's see. Summer 2012 was Sound of Music. Sitting with nuns in a hot cafeteria, watching the beautiful days roll by and feeling cheated of my outdoor time. I thought Summer 2013 would be better since rehearsals for Steel Magnolias would start later on, but somehow I found myself driving to rehearsal in June and wishing that I didn't have to spend my evenings in a cold church basement and my hikeable weekends in Vancouver.

Part of the problem is that I always have so many expectations when summer rolls around. I set myself up for disappointment in a lot of ways. In Summer 2013 I did some wonderful things! I had two weeks off and for one of them I went to my cousin's wedding in France!! But I was really unsatisfied in general. I had a lofty list in my mind and when I reviewed it in September, too many things were left unchecked. It was sad, really. I let my fantasy summer make my actual summer seem disappointing.

So. This summer. 2014. I do have plans. Lovely plans. But I am also aware that I have a tendency to get ahead of myself and become unsatisfied with what is actually happening. To combat that, I'm maintaining a list of lovely summer things as I do them. Look at these lovely things!

1. Biked to work (and home!)
2. Early morning breakfasts with Mom and/or Dad
3. Evening walks to Multnomah Village
4. Spontaneous happy hours with co-workers
5. Family time - walked the parade! and jumped in a pool!
6. Watched Orange is the New Black and didn't even feel guilty because I know I'm active enough.
7. Late night heart-to-hearts with close friends.
8. Watered my garden!
9. Read in the sun in my garden
10. Gone out to eat with Peter

All good things. And more to come!

Quote Board!

"You have strength enough. What you love, you will love. What you undertake, you will complete. You are a fulfiller of hope; you are to be relied on."

- Ursula K. Le Guin

"The only woman awake is the woman who has heard the flute."

- Kabir

“Female friendships that work are relationships in which women help each other belong to themselves.”

― Louise Bernikow

"In the psyche, the bear can be understood as the ability to regulate one's life, especially one's feeling life. Bearish power is the ability to move in cycles, be fully alert, or quiet down into a hibernative sleep that renews one's energy for the next cycle. The bear image teaches that it is possible to maintain a kind of pressure gauge for one's emotional life, and most especially that one can be fierce and generous at the same time. One can be reticent and valuable. One can protect one's territory, make one's boundaries clear, shake the sky if need be, yet be available, accessible, engendering all at the same time."

- Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“There was a time when you were not a slave, remember that. You walked alone, full of laughter, you bathed bare-bellied. You say you have lost all recollection of it, remember . . . You say there are no words to describe this time, you say it does not exist. But remember. Make an effort to remember. Or, failing that, invent.”

― Monique Wittig