Prodigal Summer's Toll

Spring is a time of proliferation of things green. The trees, shrubs and grasses thrive with their newly sprouted growth. Everything is fresh and alive and awake from the dormancy of winter.

Summer is a time of feast as the insects, birds, and other vegetarians eat their way through the lush diet made available to them during spring. There is a slow withering as the diners take their toll on the leaves of the trees and other plants. This gorging that takes place during the prodigal summer, along with the heat and aridity, causes the fading away of the lushness that was present in the spring and early summer months.

I am like the trees except I’m not sure I have their hardiness. My roots don’t seem to store up the necessary nourishment from the previous season. Summer’s heat and drought conditions take a higher toll on my spirit and mental outlook. I have to spend time outside in the cool, quiet, early hours of the morning. And I try to sneak in a few precious moments in the evening, after I have gotten my disable husband to bed to watch television. I am like the insects that gorge themselves on the lush vegetation. I soak up the sap of summer’s spring lushness in order for my spirit to survive until the cool months of autumn’s return.

My problem as a human is that the heat and lack of rain of summer sometimes take a higher toll on me than the renewal I received from the “sap” and lifeblood of nature in the spring. Depression ensues. It’s something I must constantly attempt to ward off by spending time working and playing outdoors as much as the hot conditions allow.

It’s as though, unlike the trees and shrubs, I did not put in enough of springtime’s supply of renewing growth of spirit to see me through the prodigal summer. I like the other life forms need to better adapt myself to all seasons of life, drawing on my inner strength to see me through the dry spells. I need to look inward for spring’s renewing presence to feed me through the time of spiritual drought of summer. For this too shall pass and a refreshing, renewing rain will give my spirit the nourishment it needs to spring back to emotional equilibrium so that I, like the other forms of nature, survive and thrive in my summer as well as in my springtime.

Unlike some other life forms, my well being can be controlled by my attitudes. I can allow summer to make me a prisoner by its excessive heat, or I can accept the fact that yes, once again my least favorite season is here upon me, yet I am full of life and spirit, and I’ll go about living life to the fullest and just sweat!