Yesterday I was in a shop being rung up by a lovely woman about my age. She was waiting for the credit card slip to print, and we were just kind of looking at each other smilingly benignly when, without my thinking about it, my innermost subversive thoughts came tumbling out onto the counter between us: "I'm over the summer," I declared. From here, it could have gone either way. She could look at me like I just offered her a puppy for dinner. But she didn't. "I know, right?" she said. "I can't take another day of this humidity." The wilting types had bonded.
The truth is, I believe in making the most of what's at hand. Your usual Girl Scout-Little House on the Prairie resourcefulness. But every season has its growing pains, that moment when it feels like it's gone on just a little too long. And August, at least this August, is that time. It might be different, the shopkeeper pointed out, if she lived on the seashore and could dip her overheated limbs in the ocean everyday. But we live in a heat-radiating concrete jungle with insufficient window units.
Let's call a spade a spade: some of us aren't summer types. We can't take the heat. Our skin burns. We sweat. Our energy plummets. It is the most popular season by far, and yet we don't get it. We'll be over here in the air-conditioning with a glass of lemonade, thankyouverymuch.
But the seasons can be such mirror of inspiration for our own life change. Think of this: whenever you start to get fed up with something--your job, your relationship, your daily routines--it usually means you are on the precipice of your next big breakthrough. Before summer can turn into fall, it first has to reach its fever pitch. We get the hottest, steamiest days, a rash of ripe produce, and maybe even a summer storm. Then, the air starts to change, the days get cooler, the sun sets earlier. Before change can happen in your own life, you have to reach that "over it" feeling. You have to be in a place where you can welcome and make room for something new to sweep in.
In every incarnation of being in a rut, I try to remember this. Being fed up, feeling bored, being over something--it all just means you're on the verge of your next big change.
Knowing that, we can ride out the wave of humidity or another day at the office. We know that our next great idea or an important shift, whether from inside us or outside of us, it's about to take place. Pretty soon, the catalogs will show up in the mailbox filled with sweaters, tights, and wool skirts, the leaves will change and the light will turn soft. Just wait, and in the meantime, brace yourself for the next big thing.
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