As a nature lover, Summer is a joy. I love all seasons for different reasons, but not equally .  I lived in the tropics for some years and Summer was stressful because of oppressive heat and torrential rain, along with hurricanes. But, having returned to Ireland several years ago, I have reclaimed my favourite memories of childhood growing up here and my love for Summer.

The long summer days

The cold salad plates

The thriving plants in the garden

The longer days to play

The holidays to new places

The smell of seaweed

The bright lightweight clothes

The joy of a whipped ice cream 99 as we call them here with a chocolate flake in it!

The meals out at the garden table

The fruits and vegetables picked fresh

I could go on but I won’t. I hope you will add what you love about Summer to this list. Even our brightest days can turn cold.  Sadly, a friend unexpectedly died a few weeks ago. I was unprepared for this as she planned to come and visit me in September. It was hard on the warm summer days to feel so sad and upset. But, it also served as a reminder that life is both precious and fragile. Nothing is promised to us but this very moment. It would be such a shame to waste it.

One of my favourite poets, the Pulitzer prize winning Mary Oliver has a beautiful poem about summer. The last three lines are perhaps her most famous:

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

As I type this, I find myself crying as I really hope that my friend Deborah considered this before her death. I totally agree that she died too soon. I hope that she felt her life was ‘wild and precious”. I hope that she knew how precious she was to the rest of us.

But it is a reminder that we need to have a plan for our one wild and precious life, because it is fleeting. We all get 24 hours a day and seven days a week. You, me, the Pope, Oprah Winfrey, and everyone we know, until we don’t anymore. It is incredible to see how people let those moments pass them by living unintentionally or with disregard for life.

There is research that shows play is important for people of all ages for our mental and physical health. We need to make sure that we don’t let a day go without finding the joy of life in it.  Without a doubt, meditation and prayer can help us be more reflective and practicing gratitude is so good for us too. Imagine living in a world where people live intentionally valuing not only their own life, but also the lives of all other people.

Let us practice this and hopefully it will become part of every season everywhere.