Summer is time to rest for a while

What is your favorite season?

"As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter and day and night shall not cease" (Genesis 8).

Do you believe life is about accomplishment and feel the lackadaisical atmosphere of summer is wasted? Perhaps you share my preference for fall and winter because of the brisk, productive atmosphere, and like me, have rarely relished the laziness of summer. I recently delved into solving why I preferred other seasons so I could anticipate the pleasurable qualities of summer.

Since I attempt to conform to and hopefully enjoy whatever I must endure in life, I decided to learn how to best tolerate summer. I questioned why I was unable to be like others who appreciated and looked forward to the season. Summer was when birds sang melodies of joy, grass stood lush and green and flowers displayed colorful attire as they tilted their heads to taste the sun. I could swim in the outdoors, wear colorful light clothing and be relieved from the shivering cold of winter, so why did I dislike months of warmth and beauty? Visiting those who were ill, renewing friendships and socializing with those meaningful to my life were activities I could perform. Seeing people who liked gardening, golf and traveling haunted me -- many even traveled to warmer climates during the winter months. I theorized there must be some perverted, deep-seated motive why I was unappreciative of summer. My outlook must indeed be strange. So I probed deeper to find what was wrong with me.

I first remembered I was somewhat a health fanatic and liked to exercise. As I exercised during the scalding temperatures of summer I steamed and stewed unmercifully, as my body boiled and groaned in the sweltering heat. That must one reason I disliked summer. I was more comfortable exercising during fall and winter. I then recalled I usually had various projects to complete, because I thrive on the challenge of constantly attempting something different. Since people were more laid back during the summer I found it difficult to accomplish goals because people were either vacationing or taking a hiatus from usual activities. Ah-h, I found a second reason why it was difficult to tolerate summer: I could get little accomplished.

I also wondered how anyone could sit by a lazy pool of water and leisurely wait for fish to bite while watching time stealthily sneak away. I was energized by the promise of completing projects. I felt better already. I found reasons I shrank from summer, now, I needed to know how to change the situation. I contemplated if I exercised inside an air-conditioned environment I would certainly be cooler during those blistering months -- solve one crucial quandary. I also felt fatigued during unrelenting torrid temperatures, so after deliberating I concluded I would cease attempting to accomplish jobs that required overabundant energy and save them for cooler temperatures. To ease some frustration I would perform projects requiring the availability of fewer people.

I persisted in proving there must be a way I could happily anticipate summer. Since reading Scripture had always been an antidote for me I eagerly searched the Bible and prayed for answers to my predicament. My eyes miraculously fell upon the passage that revealed when "God was finished with the work he had been doing, he rested on the seventh day" (Genesis 2). I also spied the verse "The apostles gathered with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught and He said, 'Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while'." (John 30). A light flickered in my brain: maybe summers were made for rest, since the weather could be so sultry and lethargic. I recalled summer required a change of pace for me. I had to pause a while, examine priorities and allow my body and mind to rest -- listen to whisperings of the spirit without the trappings and medications of activity. I faced my need to attend to spiritual and humanistic endeavors for which I had little time during cooler months, and asked if my brisk pace and active accomplishments were what God desired.

I found the solution to my dilemma of disliking summer and could now do as Jesus bade his apostles -- "come apart and rest awhile." Summer would be my season to rest and inventory my life remembering, "for everything there is a season" (Ecclesiastes 3).

Shuck is director of religious education at St. Mary's Cathedral parish in Cape Girardeau.