Quotes from the Classics: August
Hello, August! Mid-to-late summer has a distinctly different feel than the first half of the season. As with everything, I’m finding I have to pay close attention to get in on the magic. On the surface, things are moving. Gardens are full and neighbors are frantically exchanging zucchinis and tomatoes from plants they’ve nurtured, plants that have now gone bonkers as a result. The bounty of fresh food, perfumed with summer’s carefree essence, initiates front porch conversations and handwritten thank you cards. Joy and exuberance emanate like the sparks of nearby bonfires glittering in the open night.
Hello, August! Mid-to-late summer has a distinctly different feel than the first half of the season. As with everything, I’m finding I have to pay close attention to get in on the magic. On the surface, things are moving. Gardens are full and neighbors are frantically exchanging zucchinis and tomatoes from plants they’ve nurtured, plants that have now gone bonkers as a result. The bounty of fresh food, perfumed with summer’s carefree essence, initiates front porch conversations and handwritten thank you cards. Joy and exuberance emanate like the sparks of nearby bonfires glittering in the open night.
And yet, there is something grounding in the energy too. The squirrels that spent much of their days chasing each other from branch to branch and up and down tree trunks, may feel the cooler night air or notice a leaf or two a little yellower than the rest toward the bottom of a favorite tree. They are gathering with a bit more intention now. There are mature plants with wide open faces basking in summer sun and also going to seed, appreciation for food and also commitment to storing it, gratitude for crystal blue skies and for the hoodies that keep us warm on cool nights.
Sunflower by Domenico Gentile
There are a million reflections of existence that have manifested themselves in the last months, and there are a million more displays of Life’s ever-and-always-becoming. This strange and beautiful August alchemy that blends and mixes rapture and responsibility, also produces something altogether new. It exists at the fringes of my awareness, probably overlooked, if not for writing this post, and yet as familiar as breath. And it is this: I am the one to prepare, to build, to move, to bring to fruition my part of a wondrous unfolding. I am the one to create my life. And if not me, then who?
I am part of this beautiful rhythm and so I carry forward a heart full of warm summer blessings, grateful for growth. I hold close what matters most to me, grounding deeper roots of understanding. I adopt the same spirit of determination and commitment I feel pervading this season and draw it within to strengthen and sustain me. And I open myself to a willingness to let all else fall away in the coming season, ever devoted to the summer that will come again as sure as the sun will rise in the East.
Tall grass and sunshine by Niklas Hamann
Check out these beautiful quotes from the classics that point to the essence of August. Enjoy!
“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”
“The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year - the days when summer is changing into autumn - the crickets spread the rumour of sadness and change.”
“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
“If we had never before looked upon the earth, but suddenly came to it man or woman grown, sat down in the midst of a summer mead, would it not seem to us a radiant vision? The hues, the shapes, the song and life of birds, above all the sunlight, the breath of heaven, resting on it; the mind would be filled with its glory, unable to grasp it, hardly believing that such things could be mere matter and no more. Like a dream of some spirit-land it would appear, scarce fit to be touched lest it should fall to pieces, too beautiful to be long watched lest it should fade away.”
“The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched. ”
“The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.”
“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.”
Love in all things,
April Eileen
Quotes from the Classics: July
Fireworks and watermelon and pool parties…oh, my! Summer is here and in full sweltering effect if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere! My family and I usually find ourselves near the Lake-Oceans of Michigan or Wisconsin around the 4th of July, basking in the majesty and splendor of what seems to be a well-kept secret outside the Midwest. Visiting has become a a bit of an accidental tradition, in that somehow, year after year and without plan, we end up running down sand dunes, munching fresh farmer’s market cherries, delighting in monarch butterflies, roasting marshmallows over blazing bonfires, stargazing, or watching sunsets and moonrises over the water. I’m a July baby and these visits, full of fireworks and festive displays celebrating our country, have become a sort of unofficial birthday party for me too.
Fireworks and watermelon and pool parties…oh, my! Summer is here and in full sweltering effect if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere! My family and I usually find ourselves near the Lake-Oceans of Michigan or Wisconsin around the 4th of July, basking in the majesty and splendor of what seems to be a well-kept secret outside the Midwest. Visiting has become a bit of an accidental tradition, in that somehow, year after year and without plan, we end up running down sand dunes, munching fresh farmer’s market cherries, delighting in monarch butterflies, roasting marshmallows over blazing bonfires, stargazing, or watching sunsets and moonrises over the water. I’m a July baby and these visits, full of fireworks and festive displays celebrating our country, have become a sort of unofficial birthday party for me too.
Sparklers by Zoritsa Valova
This year, my kiddos and I spent hours rock-hunting in the dark along Pier Cove Beach in Fennville, MI. We wanted a yooperlite - perfectly ordinary looking rock by day, fire-breathing space stone by night. Okay, it’s not really from space and it doesn’t breathe fire, but it does glow brilliantly under UV at night. We learned about them during a camping trip a year or so ago. A fellow camper pulled out a black light, shined it over an unassuming gray rock, and wowed us all. This was our chance to claim a coveted luminous stone of our own!
We searched and searched for treasure, but did not find any yooperlites. We were not exactly disappointed - at least no more so than we would have been, had we been thwarted only to come back again the next day. We sensed this would not be our last exploration. But more importantly, we were carrying the real treasure with us and we seemed to know it. It was tucked among the heart shaped rocks, beautiful little pebbles, and 55-million year old lightning stones we did collect. The treasure was the magic of a search and not a find. It was the stories we had weaved and intermingled with the stories of ancient rocks, formed by fire and ice. It was the midsummer memories of connection and contentment, memories soaked in the Spirit of July.
For more summer vibes, check out the classic quotes below:
“There is no duty we so much underrated as the duty of being happy.”
“It is eternity now. I am in the midst of it. It is about me in the sunshine; I am in it, as a butterfly in the light-laden air.”
“Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the tree house; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill.”
“Overhead hung a summer sky furrowed with the rush of rockets; and from the east a late moon, pushing up beyond the lofty bend of the coast, sent across the bay a shaft of brightness which paled to ashes in the red glitter of the illuminated boats.”
“I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer – its dust and lowering skies.”
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink in the wild air’s salubrity.”
“Lift every voice and sing,
’Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.”
Love in all things,
April Eileen
Quotes from the Classics: June
Happy Solstice, everyone! We’re really in the swing of it now! If you’re in the northern hemisphere, you know all the people are doing all the things. Air conditioners are running full speed even as we venture out to birthday parties, barbecues, and lakeside picnics. It can be so fun and it can also be uber exhausting if we don't pace ourselves. If you’re like me, you can benefit greatly from saying yes to things that light you up AND the most beautiful no you can muster to things that don’t. See my May post for more on that. I don’t always get it right but when I come close, I’m able to enjoy this season of full bloom so much better!
Happy Solstice, everyone! We’re really in the swing of it now! If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, you know all the people are doing all the things. Air conditioners are running full speed even as we venture out to birthday parties, barbecues, and lakeside picnics. It can be so fun and it can also be uber exhausting if we don't pace ourselves. If you’re like me, you can benefit greatly from saying yes to things that light you up AND the most beautiful NO you can muster to things that don’t. See my May post for more on that. I don’t always get it right but when I come close, I’m able to enjoy this season of full bloom so much better!
Flowers and bubbles by Raquel Hamner The_Candid
Besides being a time when pacing is a must, June feels like such a turning point because, well, it is. Hate to be a downer, folks, but the year is almost half over. What?! Dang! While it’s crazy to think the minutes have ticked by that quickly, we’re not shopping for Christmas gifts just yet. It’s actually a really good time to check in with what you wanted to accomplish at the beginning of the year. The blueprint for the plant is in the seed and now that the seeds are starting to show themselves, we can see where we’ve been spending our precious time and what we’ve been nurturing. Is it what you intended? Are you surprised? Did you consciously choose or are your unconscious intentions running the show?
June asks us to look and face reality (which can sometimes take courage), to review and reassess, to celebrate the wins so far, and to course correct if necessary. It’s also fraught with hope because it reminds us there is still an opportunity to become who we are meant to be. There is always that opportunity. Here are some quotes from the classics to keep you inspired:
“The timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.”
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”
“If the day and night be such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more immortal - that is your success.”
“Green was the silence, wet was the light, the month of June trembled like a butterfly.”
“In early June the world of leaf and blade and flowers explodes, and every sunset is different.”
“Spring flew swiftly by, and summer came; and if the village had been beautiful at first, it was now in the full glow and luxuriance of its richness. The great trees, which had looked shrunken and bare in the earlier months, had now burst into strong life and health; and stretching forth their green arms over the thirsty ground, converted open and naked spots into choice nooks, where was a deep and pleasant shade from which to look upon the wide prospect, steeped in sunshine, which lay stretched out beyond. The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green; and shed her richest perfumes abroad. It was the prime and vigour of the year; all things were glad and flourishing.”
“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.”
Love in all things,
April Eileen
P.S. I don’t know if we’d consider that last one a classic but it’s just so dang pretty. ;-)