Peggy's Musings

Lazy Days of Summer

Our fondest thoughts of summer are captured by a wonderful old song by Nat King Cole: “Those Lazy Hazy Crazy days of Summer.”

“Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.
Dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer.
You’ll wish that summer could always be here.”

When I was growing up, we had three full months out of school to enjoy a leisurely summer. But as those with school-age children today know, there’s very little about our summer days that is ‘lazy.’ In fact, summertime is much more likely to be ‘crazy’ than ‘lazy,’ with an unstoppable schedule of activities.

First of all, the time off during the summer is very irregular – based on your particular school system’s schedule. For instance, some schools have a summer break that stretches from May to August while the break at other schools is June to September. And to really complicate things for families, some schools have a system whereby there is about a six-week break during the summer, with two other 4-week breaks spaced throughout the year.

So if there are several children in the family, time together is limited/restricted due to the varying schedules. But even the time off is not REALLY ‘off.’ The many other organized activities (including various sports leagues and camps of all kinds) continue to keep kids busy throughout the summer.

If this sounds like a stereotypical plea for ‘the good old days’… that misses the point. Actually, what some think of as the good old days were never that ‘good’ because they fell prey to just the opposite problem: too much free time with nothing to do but ‘get into mischief.’

I’ve written often about the time pressures DURING the school year - especially with so much (too much?!) homework. During the school year, families are hard-pressed to find any ‘downtime’ where they spend time together in a relaxed, unhurried way. So throughout the year, parents struggle with figuring out schedules as if they were working with a Rubik’s Cube – pushing various schedules around to try to fit everything in.

What gets lost in all this is time to relax and recharge – both as individuals and as a family. It’s common knowledge that going full-throttle without downtime can be damaging to mechanical equipment – and the same is true for humans. So I want to encourage all families to ‘take back their lives’ in whatever ways might be possible rather than being a slave to schedules imposed from outside.

When your children are young, it feels like their youth will last forever, but in hindsight you find that it went by in a flash – and you wish you had some of it back for a do-over. For extra motivation in avoiding this kind of regret, consider this famous quote by Viktor Frankl:
"Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!"

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NOTE: If you enjoy these blog posts, please check out the list of 107 similar 'musings' (and read 8 of them) included in my book Musings on Life.

Sitting on Top of the World

I had a (pardon the pun) ‘peak’ experience last week when I hiked all the way to the top of Angels Landing, a mountain in Zion National Park. I had done some hiking in the past – but nothing prepared me for the spectacular nature of REALLY hiking: 5 miles round trip, climbing 1500 ft. (from an altitude of 4200 to 5700 ft).

The trip itself was quite a challenge, but I never considered turning back – even though many people do. There’s something about looking up at the top that just ‘calls you’ to keep going. And it was well worth the trip. It truly felt like we were sitting on top of the world.

However, it was not just the great feeling of reaching the top and seeing the rest of the world so far below. It was also the pure pleasure (and excitement) of the trip itself. Much of the first sections of the hike involved switchbacks, cutting back and forth. But the last portion involved climbing almost straight up – with chains set in the mountain to hold onto in order to facilitate some of the more extreme sections near the top.

I must admit there was a sense of pride in having done this hike, mostly because we got so many comments from younger people who could hardly believe a couple of 73-year-olds were making this climb. But far more important than what I or anyone else ‘thought’ was the sheer way it made me ‘feel’ – so ALIVE!

One of the things that’s missing for many people in today’s world is the sense of vitality that comes from physical exertion. Of course, those who have physically challenging jobs may not find much satisfaction in the full-time exertion that the job entails. But for the masses who sit all or most of the day, there’s nothing quite like vigorously moving your body – especially outside instead of in a gym.

I’m not knocking the gym experience if that’s all you can manage. (I belong to a gym as well.) But while exercising in the gym may benefit your body, it can’t match the benefit to your emotions and your spirit that comes with exercising outdoors.

So I encourage you to find ways to spend more time outdoors in nature – especially engaging in active physical exercise of some sort. It’s not necessary to climb a mountain or even do anything too strenuous. In fact, walking is one of the best (and safest) exercises around – and one that almost everyone can do. Being outside helps clear your head of the clutter from constant exposure to technology, so it’s not only good for your body, but also for your mind.

P.S. If you're interested in seeing some photos of the hike I wrote about above, see: Angels Landing.

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NOTE: If you enjoy these blog posts, please check out the list of 107 similar 'musings' (and read 8 of them) included in my book Musings on Life.

Obsessed with the Weather

The weather has been a very strong focus of the news during the past week. Of course, the weather is a big topic when there’s a crisis – like a flood, a tornado or a hurricane. But even weather that is unusual or unexpected can make the news, illustrating the obsession we have with weather. (Maybe it’s because it’s a generally neutral topic that can be engaged with anyone at any time.)

Anyway, it happened again this week. A couple of days ago, the lead story on the news was about the freak snow storm in Colorado. At that same time, in the valley of the suburb of San Diego where I live, the temperature reached 100! We ARE having a lot of crazy weather these days, so there’s some legitimate reason to be so obsessed with it.

Also, many of us learned a lot of weather-themed songs when we were young, setting the stage for focusing on the weather as we got older. For instance, one of the first songs I learned as a child in the South was the country song: “You are my sunshine.”

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.
You make me happy when skies are grey.
You’ll never know dear, how much I love you.
Please don’t take my sunshine a way.”

But if there’s any doubt about how much we think about and talk about the weather, we only need to turn to the long list of songs that use weather-related words in the title.

Here’s just a partial list (in alphabetical order):

A Foggy Day (In London Town)
Ain’t No Sunshine When He’s Gone
All I Needed Was the Rain
Amid The Falling Snow
Another Stormy Night
Blame It on The Weatherman
Fair Weather Ahead
Good Day Sunshine
Here Comes Sunshine
Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again
It Never Rains In California
It’s Easy To Blame the Weather
Let It Rain
Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head
Rainy Days and Mondays
Stormy Weather
Sunshine of Your Love
Sunshine on a Rainy Day
Sunshine on My Shoulders
Sunshine, Lollipops And Rainbows
Walking On Sunshine
Weathering the Storm
You Are the Sunshine of My Life

The bottom line is that the weather is not a little fringe issue in our lives. It’s pervasive in affecting much of what we do and how we do it. And since ‘global warming’ is such a serious issue, it’s not such a bad thing to be obsessed with the weather – and to consider what we can do to have an impact. We’re fortunate to live in a world where we can enjoy nature and take decent weather for granted. But in order to maintain our optimal living circumstances, a responsible focus on the weather can be a force for good.

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NOTE: If you enjoy these blog posts, please check out the list of 107 similar 'musings' (and read 8 of them) included in my book Musings on Life.