I like to think of this past summer as the summer of the hammock.
Well… of course my shooting schedule becomes exponentially insane every year, so 12 hour days are not few and far between. Which I am ever thankful for. Always. In fact they are much more common now than they ever used to be. Almost every day for weeks on end….. (except this one… I took it off to play with my son.)
But in the non-working hours….
I was in the hammock. The hammock I built because I didn’t have two trees close enough together in this yard full of trees. A hammock I lit with battery powdered lights so I could read when it got too dark. A hammock I would sleep in. A hammock I would watch the clouds pass by in, on those beautiful blue bird sky days. A hammock I would sip my fizzy gins in and let my imagination run free. Let my mind go to where it wanted to. It was my place for that.
I work hard. Really hard in the summer. My family is busy with activities. Baseball. Bocce. Softball. Summer things.
And instead of playing.
I hammock-ed in my free time.
It’s the first summer in years I haven’t traveled anywhere. It’s the first summer I haven’t wanted to go anywhere (I know, not really me, right?) I didn’t go to concerts. I didn’t go to rodeos. I didn’t go. Not really.
And if I did go….I headed to the mountains. And hung a hammock, portable of course, in a place next to the stream, a place I love and long for. Hiking a few times, but mainly watching hummingbirds and butterflies and bumblebees keep themselves busy while I didn’t.
And now at the end of it….
There is no regret.
I needed time off from exploring.
I needed to heal. I needed my family to heal… all of them. I needed calm. I needed the sun… every day.
I spent the mornings getting up and sitting outside, covered in a blanket with a book and a cup of coffee…… greeting the warm sun. Sucking every ounce of it in. I have needed the sun so much in the last few months. And I almost fear what will happen when the sun still is shining and I can’t go sit with my blanket and coffee.
But now, that the summer is over…..it’s time.
Plane tickets are purchased.
It’s time to go….
But a summer of the hammock-ing, I hope everyone gets one, in one form or another. They are needed some years.
