We live in a strange and curious time where polarities contract and expand to meet the daily changes we unconsciously ignore. In stillness we want movement and in movement we want results that serve us. In the summer heat we want the cool winds of autumn and in the autumn of our lives we want the springtimes to return. Summer is a time to sit back, relax and enjoy the many paradoxes and positive approaches to setbacks rather than engaging these curiosities and dramas. It’s a time to bask in the warmth and learn from the winds of change. 

What are you dreaming about these days? What are you doing you think you can’t do? How are you turning your words into wisdom and what are you failing at that you can benefit from? Are you listening to the winds of change or turning up the volume of something you know is just a diversion? In our failures we can learn. In our looking we can see. It’s not the mountain we conquer when climbing, but ourselves as we ease through the difficulties, ascents and descents  of our lives. Walt Disney said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” What are you dreaming? 

I’ve always approached summer as a time to serenade the soul through the lazy days and gentle breezes: A time to embrace inner connections with the world of nature and the many hopes and dreams of life. Autumn, winter and spring are where the intense work activities take place, where there’s lots to do with few opportunities for serenading. This summer however, there seems to be less relaxation and more work, less dreaming and more scheming at how to get through another day, how to make a way through the haze of disillusionment and ongoing change. 

This summer I’ve failed to hear the crickets singing in the stillness of the night and somehow have been overwhelmed by the howling winds of change. I’ve given too much attention to what’s outside my window rather than to what’s inside my soul……Do you know what I mean? Are you stuck somewhere inside by fear or confusion, doubt, anxiety, apathy or lethargy? Have you forgotten your dreams or simply put them on a shelf for another time? Can’t we do the great things while they are small and the difficult things when they are easy, simple and fun? Hmm. . . .

This summer the earth is again smiling at us through the many flowers that keep showing their love, beauty, harmony and amazing grace. They’re asking us to breathe in the wonder of life and the greatness of the small things. They’re beckoning us to give attention to the shortness of life and the ongoing nature of seasons to help us find a way to be transformed along Life’s path. The flowering rose bushes speak of love and gratitude for others, of inspiration and imagination to transform worlds and sow new seeds of creativity. The birds still sing songs of awakening and call us home to a dream of serene peace and harmony but are we listening?

No matter what goes on in this world, the winds of change keep blowing while the crickets sing and the flowers dance. It’s a cacophony of sight and sound  we humans seem to ignore or simply forget. These sights, sounds and experiences are here this summer for us to remember the deep hidden Essence of Being that transcends all doing. When we allow ourselves to laugh and sing and dance with the wind, the birds, the flowers and the trees, we once again discover the truth of who we are at our Source. We once again awaken to the essence of life that’s always here beckoning us to join the wonder and wisdom of creation as participants in Summer’s Serenades.

• For the next couple months, give yourself the gift of communing with Nature in all her glory. Take slow walks, enjoy the outdoors, sit on a porch swing, bask in the warm air and follow the path of peace wherever it leads. Give yourself this gift of nature’s serenity.
• Give your calculative mind a break and dream dreams that bring smiles to your face and the grace of a warm embrace. Allow these dreams to motivate you into gentle action.
• Turn off the television and the other electronic devices that demand your attention. Give yourself permission to surrender to Summer’s Serenade through the cooing of a dove, the rustling leaves of the trees, the lapping water on the shorelines, the breeze in your sails. 
• Calm and center, come home within, begin again to listen to the silent music in the wind!