Summertime Happiness
Summertime Happiness is Hawaii
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. ~ John Lubbock
I can feel the summer coming to an end, and with it of course summertime happiness. There was just a whiff of fall that I caught on the air during a bike ride this weekend. That smell does a couple of things for me, first it triggers my reduction in shaving and the beginnings of the growing of a fall beard. That meant a lot more when I lived in colder climates but it is a tradition I have kept up. I love the fall, it has always been the most exciting part of the year for me. When I was a kid it signaled school starting and I loved going to school, it also came to mean hunting season and the start of the NFL season.
However today I want to talk about summer, about the simple joys of being a kid in summer. What triggered my post tonight was a sound, a simple sound that I knew instantly what it was but couldn’t quite place. It was a tune, I listened and after a bit it came to me it was Scott Joplin’s, The Entertainer. More importantly it was being played on an ice cream truck and yes all I could hear in my head was the exasperated childhood voice screaming, “ice cream man!” I remember that sound from childhood, our ice cream man was named Pete, it’s a bit of summertime happiness that is a memory that always makes me smile.
Summertime Happiness is Reading
It also brought back memories of swimming for 10 hours a day in my Uncle Mike’s pool, hours hanging around on the local city playgrounds, the feeling of ice-cold water pouring down my throat when I was sweating and hot and lots of hours reading books I wanted to, not what they assigned in school. I thought back to hours of laying on my back on a moss-covered rock in the woods staring at the sky. Those moments so common as children are so precious and fleeting now in our complex lives.
So tonight, take a moment and think about those moments, relax and smile. Even more importantly find a moment tomorrow or this week to relive one of those happy, happy moments.
One last thing to help you smile tonight, a little piece of music that to me is quintessential summertime, enjoy.
Have a happy day my friend ~ Rev Kane
The Ministry of Happiness 
The best part of having kids is getting to do all those kid things again that you have abandoned for no good reason. This summer I have gone skateboarding numerous times, and I just got back into boogie boarding. At my advanced, nearly geriatric, age (I’m nearly as old as you Minister) I would have guessed that I would never have gone skateboarding or boogie boarding ever again.
And I really had a great time doing both.
I bought a boogie board, and I am seriously considering getting a longboard.
Not a bad summer!
Way too go old man, looking at surf school myself in Mexico.