Summer Haze...

I write this post from the couch, dogs napping on either side, covered in sunscreen after a long walk, and a leisurely breakfast in the backyard. Summer is here, and my brain and body know it. I wonder if there is something about the rhythms of our childhood, and how they coincided with the school year that stay with us, long into adulthood. As I walked the neighborhood today, I saw parents and students celebrating the last day of school with a party, presents for their teachers, hugs and shouts goodbye to one another. Some of those kids will go off to camp, some will go to summer school and some will find a way to pass the days as quickly as possible, eagerly awaiting the fall and the start of another school year. I used to do all 3. From the time that I could, I worked. I had a kids entertainment business at twelve, worked at a food pavillion at 13, had my own t-shirt design street vendor business at 14 and so on. Summer was always a chance to DO something, ACCOMPLISH something, and GET AHEAD.

Even now, with the structure-it-yourself lifestyle that being self employed affords me, I find myself restless when summer hits, and eager to have a project or a task that I can complete so that I feel a sense of accomplishment come fall. For the last few years, every summer has been taken up with demanding screenwriting or novel writing courses at UCLA, but this year I graduated and am left once more to my own devices to create an activity that will fill my days in between the auditions and the freelance, both of which are quieter in the summer months.

I hope to get through my reading list, I hope to eat as much frozen yogurt as possible, I hope to relax and enjoy the quieter time with friends and family, and most of all I hope that I can actually enjoy the downtime, and listen to those quiet moments that I have and try to hear...the new novel that is whispering, and the hopes and dreams that are murmuring. And maybe if I can sit still long enough, without judgement of doing so....I might just be able to not only enjoy this summer, but learn from it as well.