Summer Skies & Savoring Slow

Our summer travels so far have involved both long drives and long plane rides.

We’ve seen lightning strike across desert skies and over the open waters of the Pacific.

We’ve watched the sun ignite the horizon just beyond the salt flats of western Utah, and we watched that same sun let off a slow glow as it sunk toward the ocean.

For hours, my eyes darted from my book to the two green-bellied birds who had made their home in the tree towering above me.

I watched the sky just beyond that tree turn from pure blue to faint purple to dusty black.

When we flew, I longed like a little kid to reach out my window and touch the clouds all around us.

Since I’ve been home, plowing through photos and daydreaming about being back in Mexico, I keep thinking about all the skies I’ve seen so far this summer. They make me so very grateful to be alive. To get to see a new sky every day.

“The earth has music for those who listen.”

My friend and mentor Shawn is re-releasing her beautiful book, The Abundant Mama’s Guide to Savoring Slow: Simplify, Embrace the Chaos, and Discover an Abundance of Time at Home.

I love what she has to say about seasons on earth and our seasons of life. Especially this:

“The weather is the best gift for telling us who’s boss. We’re not in charge of the Universe, no matter how hard we try to be. But we are in charge of how we use our time, what we let our mind focus on and what we choose to be happy about.”

I’m choosing to be happy about the sky this summer (and hopefully much longer). It’s my constant reminder to slow down and savor, as Shawn would say. It helps me remember the slow moments of my summer so far and motivates me to recreate them. To let stress drift away in exchange for a moment of wonder.