A Summer to Remember
I don’t know about you, but July has felt like an emotional rollercoaster. Perhaps it is that six planets are in retrograde and we have had two eclipses.
For me the mantra has been stay in the moment, breath and slow down. I keep reminding myself it’s summer. Having grown up in New England there is a distinct summer season from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Yes, white shoes, bright pinks, green pants and the soothing sound of cicadas at night. My sweetest childhood memories were spent with my family of seven and my cousins at the Cape and Jersey Shore.
Our parents would rent a house for a week and eleven of us and sometimes my grandparents too would all be together. Boardwalks, puzzles and ocean front rentals, my dad dancing at the golden hour with his sister as the adults sipped cocktails to the setting sun.
Yes, slow down for Pete’s sake or even better, for your own sake. Listen to your heart, your soul, what’s calling you. Maybe it’s the joy of summer and enjoying a cool drink on a hot summer day. Maybe it’s connecting with friends on a back porch and talking till late. Maybe it’s letting your calling rise.
Yes, calling something that makes you passionate and gives you peace at the same time. That’s what has been going on for me. Now more than ever. I have been a workaholic most of my life. It was how I coped, and recently in reading “Emotional Equations” by Chip Conley, a great book by the way, he says this, “Workaholism equals what are you running from divided by what are you living for”.
That made me really pause… what am I am running from divided by what am I living for?
And what am I living for in my fifth decade, and if I follow my grandmother’s footsteps, I could have 5 more to go. I think of her often since her passing. A larger-than-life, eight by ten picture of her sits on top of my fridge. She had passion till the day she died, and she always asked me if I liked my job. I think along the years she knew I was doing things that weren’t my true calling.
She would often ask me, “Have you finished that book?” and I would reply, “No, not yet” and she would say, “Finish it”.
So tonight, I finish this post to you with encouragement to relax, wonder and make the last month of summer one to remember.
Together we connect,
Louisa
P.S. I love to connect. Leave your comments here.
