Summer in a Bottle

~Out walking on Memorial Day, the first unofficial day of summer~

It is beautiful and lovely and bright and sunny. It is hot but not sweltering… It's the warmth that is welcome at the end of spring. I am present and joyful, but only for a moment. I quickly move on to capture it on my phone for the Instagram posts. I wish that there was a bottle in which I could just store this moment like a scent or a spirit that ages well. Because memories captured on camera do not, age well. 

I want to capture the gentle breeze which caresses my skin.

I want to capture the green of the trees juxtaposed against the brownstones

I want to capture that relaxed energy in the air- the languor of the first weekend of summer which is vibrant but not rushed, active but not fast, lively but not frantic.

I can feel it in the rhythm of footsteps, hands with shopping bags, cups with iced drinks, the breeze… and the distinct lack of sirens today. Yes, perhaps it is a day off even for emergencies… (I hope) 

And I wish I could save all of this in a bottle and open it on a rainy day, on all the cold dark nights that lie ahead because that is the inevitability of the future and I know it, I am a wise (jaded?) twenty seven year old now. 
But I have forgotten that more bright days like this are also equally inevitable. This is here today,  and yes it may not be there tomorrow… but it will come back. As it always does. 

We remind ourselves that dark days will return but we forget to remind ourselves that bright days will also return… So why not live it in blissful ignorance to the possibility of darkness in future. 

“Life is seasonal and sorrowful and triumphant and lurid, and still so beautiful because of its non-linearity…”

I am embracing the here and now - dark or light, warm or cold, I am leaning into it. 

All days are poems - some sad, some happy, some about nature, others about love…but each one of them can be beautiful if you pay attention.