Saving my life: deep summer edition.

It’s suddenly August (how??) and between work, a couple of weekend getaways and serious summer heat, here’s what’s saving my life right now:

• Poetry Unbound. I had missed the most recent season, but am catching up, and it’s a joy to hear Padraig’s lilting Irish voice and discover new-to-me poets.
• Daylilies, echinacea and sunflowers – it’s hot, but these beauties (like me) are hanging on.
• The teeny tiny cherry tomatoes I’m growing on the back patio.
• Sitting out back in the evenings with a book and some lemonade, when I can.
• My favorite denim shorts, my trusty Allbirds sneakers and a few new tops from a friend, which amounts to a mini wardrobe refresh.
• Lots and lots (and lots) of water.
• Tea, always tea: MEM ginger peach, Trader Joe’s watermelon mint, the occasional iced chai.
• Texts from a couple of lifesaving faraway friends.
• Planning a couple of August adventures.
• Watermelon facial mist from Trader Joe’s, which sounds ridiculous but is very refreshing.
• Ukulele fun at my workplace: “Ode to Joy,” Bruno Mars’ “Count on Me” and assorted other tunes.
• Fun books: rom-coms, mysteries, middle grade, a super nerdy nonfiction book about blurbs.
• An occasional walk to the neighborhood park to watch the sunset (see above).

What’s saving your life in these deep summer days?

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#31things: back on the bike.

As spring approaches, I’m taking my Wild Irish Rose out for spins around the neighborhood. Sore hamstrings, pumping pedals, the wind in my face, that feeling of freedom—it’s all good.

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#31things: walks with friends.

We meet (bundled in coats and masks), wave hello, stroll the river or park or neighborhood. We trade news, talk books, share hopes for a return to some kind of normalcy. 

(Image from last fall when it was warm enough to walk without coats!)

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“You smell like outside.”

This is what we used to say to my dad, when he came in from mowing the lawn or an afternoon walking the golf course. In West Texas, you can do both for a good chunk of the year, and while it’s often warm (or hot) enough to break a sweat, this was something different. Sometimes I could smell the lawn fertilizer or the musty scent of dried leaves, but often it was simply the outdoors: earthy, fresh, dusty, a distinct contrast to the clean interior smells of our house.

For as long as I’ve lived in Boston, I have commuted by a combination of public transit and walking, so I have to – and like to – get outside multiple times on any given day. But since I’ve become a walker and then a runner, I get outside much more often, for longer stretches, in nearly all kinds of weather and at all times of day.

Whether it’s the river trail or the Commonwealth Ave mall, or a long, rambling stroll through the streets of Cambridge, I go outside as often as I can, to feel the wind in my hair and the sun on my face, to observe the particularities of the changing seasons. I go to move, to take breaks, to run errands, to ride a bike, to meet friends: to refresh myself by being out in the big wide world.

Of course, I often break a sweat, especially when I’m running or riding. But sometimes, when I come back inside, it’s not quite sweat I smell. It’s something different, more earthy, in my hair or on my clothes. I realized the other day what it was: sometimes I just smell like outside. And I am so happy about that.

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