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Lazy summer days last longer
(by Barbara Christian - June 23, 2010)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
Lazy summer days last longer
Before you know it, we will be asking each other, "Where did this summer go?" It's the season of the year that seems to travel at light speed. So how do we make it last? How do we put summer on slow-mo?
The trick, I think, is to downshift our lives. Easier said than done, right? We can do it if we try.
Peruse our calendars and have a heart to heart with our families. What do we really want to do this summer?
Are the kids so over-scheduled they think they are back at school? Enrolling them in classes and activities does that to a kid in search of freedom, and it puts parents behind the wheel of the family car way too much.
Is that class in bowhunting something little Bobby really wants to do, or is it something you want him to do? In other words, are we looking for fun in all the wrong places?
Nothing makes time go faster than stuffing the day. Have we left enough time for some good, old-fashioned, imaginative free play and spontaneity? Thinking about the above, what do we do about it?
While summertime should be all about getting away from a regimen and structure, we can still invent "teaching moments" for the kids.
Let's drive out to Auburn Township and envision the wind turbine one family is planning on their farm. Talk about wind energy. Then point out the sociological and political meaning of the "not in my back yard." Discuss the imbalance between neighborhood complaints about aesthetics and our desire for energy independence.
Talk about aesthetics being in the heart and eye of the beholder. Compare the wind turbine to the high-tension electric power lines that cut a swathe through the Chagrin Valley.
OK, I was just kidding about that. For something less political, let's take a stroll in Riverside Park. Take some stale bread and feed the ducks or stop at Chagrin Hardware next door and grab a bag of its official duck food. Nothing says summer like feeding the ducks.
Let's live dangerously by stopping in at the Popcorn Shop and indulging everyone in an ice cream cone -- before dinner!
Next, pack up what the kids don't eat that night for dinner and take it on a picnic the next day. Who says you can't have cold spaghetti at a picnic? There is no crying in baseball, and there are no rules for picnic fare. We'll take that picnic to Whitesburg Nature Preserve and enjoy a low-impact walk, find a flat rock and listen to the quiet, enjoy that pasta.
And we can't forget the fishing poles. We can dip a line in the fish pond at Whitesburg. "Catch and release" is the way to go.
Now, we'll check out the library and see what's going on there. A spur-of-the-moment trip is always good. But don't forget the shopping bags. We will stuff those bags with books and let the kids find some too. Then we will go home, find a comfy chair or porch swing and read, read, read.
Too hot to do anything? Grab our swimsuits, drag the hose to the back yard and run through the sprinkler. It's not just for kids, you know.
Whatever we do, let's remember to savor the days. Time needn't fly by just because it's summer.
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