August 31, 2024
On Summer and Riding the Waves
I really love summer. I love that the sun is hotter than it is warm, and how riots of flowers and puffy trees fill the spaces around me. I love being comfortably barefoot around my house and sending my slippers into their seasonal sabbatical in the back corner of my closet. I love waking up to birdsong and the delightful way that the whir of crickets and the light dances of fireflies set the stage for the long yawn towards nightfall.
I also love how summer is such an unapologetically full ride, and how much it seems to revel in being the season of peak aliveness. Summer’s superpower is the ability to bend light and time wide open and grant every living thing the opportunity to connect with the energy of aliveness and delight. What’s not to love about that?
One of the joys of working the way I have for the past 10 years – from home, with trees outside every window – is that I can take my work breaks outside whenever the outdoors beckon. In the summer, that feels like always. So I hitch up my two dogs more often and we walk longer. I lace up my running shoes and clock more miles in the Baltimore heat and humidity than at any other time of year. Over the years I have been informed by many people – especially my fellow Baltimore runners – that this is not how most people feel about summer here, and they don’t get it. But this is how it is for me.
Summer has always felt like my most natural habitat, in every way.
This summer I’ve logged more solo walking miles than in any time I can remember. Solo walking has become my favorite practice for riding the waves of life, which is full of a lot of change and new terrain for me. I’ve found that solo walks connect me to a contemplative zone that boosts my tolerance for all the unknowns, worries, and vulnerabilities that come with change (because they do come, even when the changes are good). No dogs, no running, no agenda other than to walk. I venture out carrying my heart, mind, and body however they want to be carried, step step stepping along the surface of the Earth.
My singular focus is to allow myself to move forward in the way that best meets the moment and the conditions: quick/slow, light/stomp, meander/purpose, headphones/unplugged.
And now, here we are in the waning days of summer. My youngest daughter started college last week, and my older one is off and running for year three. That means I’ve started my first semester at Empty Nest University. None of it seems possible, and yet this is what is actually happening!
That’s the thing – life is going to happen how and when it happens. My 20 years of being a mother and 10 years of running a small business have been my best teachers when it comes to focusing less on being ready for when it happens and more on learning to ride the waves and meet the moment, whatever and however the conditions. The surfing lessons I took back in 2019 have been on my mind a lot lately. I’m excited to get back out there in the coming year after some years of a lot of on-land surfing!
Nancy is a Baltimore native who came to communications and marketing through her work in public health. In 2014 she took an entrepreneurial leap of faith to start Asana Consulting and she found her wings.
