Lessons from childhood summers

A couple of days after I wrote about summer kicking my butt and my plan to peel out of Maria’s school parking lot on her first day, I sat down to read a wonderful book a friend just loaned me — The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.

From the dedication:

“Summer is like childhood. It passes too fast. But, if you’re lucky, it gives you warm memories from which you take strength in the cold days ahead.
Summer is also like childhood, in that you may not think what you are doing matters very much while you are doing it, but later on you realize it mattered far more than you knew.
Summer is hot days, picnics, roads under repair, and the chance to swim. Summer is slower than the rest of the year, and its days are longer than any others. Summer embraces children. But, like childhood, summer also warns: Love me now; I will not last.
Like a child, summer teaches us about the best in life. Summer asks us to do what we should help our children do: play, relax, explore, and grow.”

California, Summer 2008

We did have a glorious summer. Much to be grateful for.
I needed to read that.
Did you?