Bringing out the summer in you this 2012

Many (many) summers ago, when I was still a teenager, and had only myself, my anger, my passion and self loathing to take care of, I painted. My sister and I were a tight pair then (as we still are) and we brought our paint brushes, our creativity and imaginations out on those long summer afternoons as we sat and pondered and painted. It was a beautiful summer. We were staying with my gramma then and we painted our room walls with our favorite anime (only after the summer did we realize that gramma was getting her house white-washed and re-painted after we left, makes sense why she let us paint on her walls). That summer we had also become obsessed with making jewellery. We had scouted local stores for beads and nylon threads and strung them in anklets and bracelets that we never wore, and when we were tired of our jewellery making and painting we would go to the backyard where the great big mango tree was, we'd climb high up and plucked each one of them, eager to nibble on them or just wait for my gramma to pickle them.

A summer jumping on trampolines

I did not color, paint and use my oil pastels after that. I love to buy jewellery even now but I stopped trying to make them any more. If its summer and my gramma is at home, we continue to spend some timeless afternoons in the backyard spotting mangoes and climbing up the tree to get them. There is something about that summer, I continue to remember it very fondly. Painting and jewellery making were only some tools we chose to make that summer so treasured. What really worked however was the camaraderie between my sis and I, the acceptance  my gramma provided us, the stress free, directionless direction we provided ourselves with and  the calmness of summer. Every time I think of play I think back on that summer. With the dawn of a new year I hope to bring that summer back into my life everyday. I hope to:

• live everyday with calmness and mindfulness
• play with my daughter and create new tools to bring out the summer within us
• create directionless direction, which essentially means I hope to give direction to my life but also hope to be ready and open to whatever comes
• reach out and make friends, this is a tough one for me, but as a new mommy this is something I am yearning for
• continue to spend time with those I love 
• read 
• take care of myself, my passion, anger and self loathing 

Do you have a summer you treasure and love? Can you bring out that summer once again all year this new year?