Summer Solstice 2020
Plan Your Summer Fun
In the midst of COVID-19, we welcome the Summer Gift Registry 2020! Summer arrived in the Northern Hemisphere on Sunday, June 21st, at 5:44 p.m., EDT. That was the longest day of light all year. It’s nice to have you with me, on this Summer Solstice.
If you live in a different hemisphere, I invite you to apply the seasonal gift registry to your new season.
I started the idea of a self Gift Registry at the beginning of each season. The gifts are experiential and earn you as many Enchanted Keys as possible.
Even with COVID-19 on the scene, many of these glorious summer celebrations can still take place because they exist in your sense memory.
The How-To
Here’s how it works: You set aside some time to quiet yourself and meditate on the upcoming season. Immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of the season. Then you schedule moments to experience these things on the calendar so you feel abundant at the close of the season. Grant yourself Enchanted Keys: Mindfulness, Altered Perceptions, Journaling, Sensory Experiences, Reduced Clutter, Humor, Movement, Art, Nature, and Meditation.
Summer Meditation
Sights of Summer
Find a comfortable position. (Preferably at the base of a tree.) Take a few deep, cleansing breaths and exhale fully. As your physical body relaxes, envision your own picture of summer.
You might see yourself walking barefoot on a sandy beach or through soft, freshly mowed grass. Notice the sights, like the appearance of fireflies at night, brightly colored flowers in bloom, lush green-leaved trees that provide pockets of shade and cobalt blue skies.
Sounds of Summer
Let your sense-memory shift to the sounds of summer that bring you joy, laughter or peace. Open windows allow for the night song of tree frogs. Birds sing from sunrise ‘til sunset. Maybe you are lucky enough to fall asleep to the rhythmic sound of crashing waves on the ocean.
Scents of Summer
Drift to the smells of the season. We breathe in heat and the scent of cool rain in the late afternoons. Summer BBQs with grilled corn, fresh rosemary and basil, along with smoke-kissed pineapple and mango provide delicious fragrances. Sunscreen, with citrus or coconut, wafts the scents of the season on gentle breezes. We also enjoy honeysuckle, gardenias or night-blooming jasmine perfuming the air.
Tastes of Summer
Taste summer with crisp salads, ripe tomatoes, juicy strawberries, blackberries, and watermelon. Maybe it’s a ballpark frank or a pitcher of sweet tea or lemonade, next to your rocker on the porch, that connect you to the season. Cool water never tasted so good, as it does after a long hike. Let yourself recall what summers held for you as a child.
Textures of Summer
Touch or textures might include the rich soil you sift through your fingers as you tend to your garden. As a child, I recall long summers spent jumping in and out of the waves on South Beach, Florida. I’d face the white caps rolling in and get slammed in the stomach, salty water nearly choking me and I’d do it all over again, for hours. Such fun!
Summer's End
Summer will come to a close as autumn begins this year on Tuesday, September 22nd, at 9:31 a.m. Take yourself to the end of the season and consider what you will have missed if you don’t experience it. Then make a plan to do those things. Schedule them on your calendar or the Dragons will make you forget you ever dreamt of them.
Question of the Day
What's your favorite summer memory? Please play along and let Team Enchantment know. We'd love to hear about it.
Stay enchanted!