Do you have a ‘summer list’? Those things, activities, projects you want to accomplish this summer? Many students have a summer reading list. Do you have one? Is this the summer to tackle War and Peace, Mists of Avalon or the most recent Harry Potter, those incredibly thick books that would be too daunting, too overwhelming when snow and cold surround us? If you have a list, hopefully it is not completely filled up with things like..paint the garage…..rotate the tires….organize the linen closet…unless, of course, that gives you great pleasure.

Summer has always been, for me, the time of possibility, imagination, activities that lead to sheer pleasure. I was reminded of it yesterday as I listened to the young girls who are our backyard neighbors play. The one said:"Now we are in South Dakota." Somehow their swing set had been transformed into a wagon carrying them to the Great Plains……from the conversations I’ve heard flowing over the fence, it is clear this is the summer to read Laura Ingalls Wilder books. 

In front of our house another neighbor has had a large pile of black dirt delivered. It has not yet been distributed to its new home, so yesterday two of the younger boys claimed it as their own "mountain". They climbed, tried to ride their bikes on it and finally the smallest one simply crawled to the top and sat there….King of the Mountain! I wondered what was going through his mind….I hope they were summer thoughts…freedom,dreaming,thinking of what will be the next great thing to do.

Recently there have been many reports about how Americans don’t really take vacations, and when they do they take all the trappings of work with them. We have great difficulty disconnecting from our need to work and our technology allows us to blur the lines between recreation and work. It can be very easy to work all the time and not even realize it. There is, at least in my opinion, a certain amount of idolatry in living this way.

As a child, on summer days, I often went from my pajamas to my bathing suit and back again at the end of the day. It was a great change from the intensity of school work and the schedules of the rest of the year. In those days, I was able to read, play, rest, make things, spend time with family and friends, and simply be bored…not at all a bad thing. Out of that boredom I was moved to creative thinking.

In a file I have called "Words to Keep" I ran across a list of exercises mostly meant for nudging a writer out of writer’s block. The exercises included some ideas that may help engage you in some summer list making. Even if your vacation is long past, or will not happen this summer, here’s an invitation to capture the mind expanding joy of summer. Try a list of: 100 things I’m thankful for….100 things I would like to do in my life that I’ve not tried yet….100 places I’ve never traveled to but would like to…If I could fly I could(list)….If I were Superman/woman I could(list)…I wish I were a butterfly because(list)…The greatest joys in my life are(list them).

Go ahead, get something cool to drink, a pencil and paper and begin your list. Who knows….South Dakota could be calling….or you may get to be King- or Queen – of the Mountain!