The Unplanned Fruits of the Season

I know I've said it before but I love summer.  I love it. I love it. I love it.  

Why?

Because summer allows for moments like today, when two of my daughters asked me to walk with them and we found fresh raspberries.  One of them stopped to pull two dandelions and handed one to her sister and the other to me.  "Make a wish." she said, and we blew.  She then talked about how she doesn't believe in wishes. 

My heart lurched, for a seven year old should not be so pragmatic.  She should have magic in her world.  "Why not?" I asked, thinking I now rewrote my own wish to be that she holds to wishes.  
"Because I've wished lots of times for Rainbow Dash to come to life." she answered.  She shrugged her shoulders.  "And she hasn't."

I held her hand and gave her a squeeze, "That's because you're Rainbow Dash." I answered.  The sparkle in her eyes returned in that moment, and she spent the next three blocks of our walk asking to be lifted up so that she could pretend to fly. 

Her sister and I lifted her every three steps or so, and she was Rainbow Dash. 

Afterwards, we ate the raspberries.

When we returned home, a summer shower blew up and my older daughters laughed at my being willing to go outside and drag down the trash cans and recycling in the rain.  But I like storms and there is something delicious about walking out and feeling the wind before the rain, and seeing the clouds sweep by with speed and darkness, I love the smell of it.   They think I'm nuts. 

For dinner, we ate burgers and fries, cucumber and carrots.   With the storm breaking over our house, I opted to try for an early evening.  Bathing the youngest two, I noticed my own feet were very grubby and so I put my feet in the tub.  My two youngest took the opportunity to wash my feet. 

They poured cool water over my toes and wiped my heels with a sponge.  It's hard to explain except to say, it felt like a gift. I marveled at the amount of joy they took in cleaning my feet. 

The day kept surprising me with the amount of sun and joy a stormy evening could hold, like a discovered bush of ripe berries.  We read three small books and then the first chapter from three chapter books checked out of the library to seed in the older children's minds, the hunger for the rest of the story.  They went up clutching the books, eager to find out what happened next.   I tried to read for myself but I fell asleep on the couch. 

One of my daughters during dinner, after shaking her head because we didn't go to the pool or the library or the park or the berry farm or mall this week, asked "What I wanted to do tomorrow?" I didn't have an answer.  But I did know, this is part of the joy of summer, to not know ahead of time what we will do, but have the luxury of being able to ask it and the willingness to let the day unfold naturally, and let the discoveries along the way, provide the color, flavor, wishes and magic, the foot baths, raspberries, storms and Rainbow dash.  

I know other seasons have these hidden glories, but I find the salt of life easiest to spot, easiest to savor, when the jewels of life present themselves just along the walk while you weren't doing anything in particular.   Happy Summer!