Use that summer!

View from Mount Pisgah near Springfield, Oregon

Summer's halfway point, 2011.  So far, so good.  July is usually generous, here in Oregon, and although there have been rain and cool temperatures, this summer has been an improvement over last year, when the thermometer read 48 degrees (Fahrenheit) on the morning of July 5.

Wild flowers

Most years I talk a good game about spending time in nature, but this year I'm actually doing it.  My intrastate travels since June have taken me to Southern Oregon, the Oregon Coast, into the Mount Hood wilderness, and to various places up and down the Willamette Valley.

Roll right, stones

So, today, a post to exhort anyone out there who might agonize that summer is going by too fast.  Get out there and enjoy it!  You only get so many summers in your life and each one is a precious gift.

Alas for the departed

He came down through fields of green
On the summer side of life
His love was ripe

There were no illusions
On the summer side of life
Only tenderness

And if you saw him now
You'd wonder why he would cry
The whole day long
--Gordon Lightfoot

What a life!