As the dog days of August finally yield to the crisp hints of September, we carry the warmth with us. We have stored up the sunshine in our bones. We have tanned our skin and filled our lungs with clean air. The spring and summer months are not just a date range on the calendar; they are a state of being. They are the annual reminder that the world is good, that life is a sensory pleasure, and that no matter how long the winter, the great unfurling will always come again.
There is a bittersweet thread woven through the fabric of summer, however. Because summer is so vibrant, we are always aware that it is fleeting. The first day of August carries a different quality of light than the first day of June. The golden hour arrives earlier. The back-to-school advertisements begin to creep into the mailbox. Summer lives with the knowledge of its own ending, which is precisely what makes it so glorious. It is a party that we know will end at dawn, so we dance harder. We stay up later to watch the Perseid meteor shower. We squeeze one more barbecue out of the long weekend.
Summer operates under its own unique set of rules. Morality becomes fluid; eating ice cream for breakfast is permissible if the day promises to hit ninety degrees. Productivity takes a vacation. The afternoon hours, between two and four, belong to siestas, hammocks, and the droning lullaby of cicadas. This is the season of the road trip, of county fairs, of fireflies blinking their cryptic messages in the dusk. It is a time for the body as much as the mind. We wear fewer clothes, we swim in open water, we sleep with the windows open and listen to the distant rumble of thunder.