in summer when the days are long, perhaps you'll understand the song.*

gOoD mOrNinG. today was one of those days where every happening, every conversation, every circumstance and tiny detail brought back memories, or pieces of memories...

it was one of the first mornings that truly felt like a summer morning. and there is something about that, the pulsating heat of the sun by 8am in such stark contrast to the cool dark shadows of places that haven't been touched yet by the sun, that instantly takes me back to summer mornings of early childhood, standing around the edge of the pool. dry, cool cement beneath my dry, calloused feet, not yet radiating the heat it has spent the day absorbing from the sun. a cool that is so much so that it almost feels like dampness. more often than not, net in hand, scooping out bugs and leaves. listening to the hum and the gurgle of the filter as it starts its long day of work, the sun already strong on my back and shoulders, but still feeling a slight chill standing there in just my bathing suit. the pool looking as it always does, tempting me to jump in, but knowing that it is not time, i have not been given the go ahead, the chlorine is still too strong, the water still too cold, but, still, i consider it with every passing moment. the quiet of the yard, the neighborhood, that lets you hear things you otherwise wouldn't - conversations that are going on inside the house, a creak of a door opening or closing, a hair dryer, a cabinet closing. i move along the edge of the pool with a sense of heightened awareness and anticipation.

there is something about summer mornings, the space between moments that sometimes stretches out to what seems like forever. the heat causing a cautious, slow laziness and the coolness of the shadows causing a relief, a respite that demands a quiet, relaxed laziness, a last gasp at easy comfort for the day. sluggish and laid back for such different reasons. these moments always make me feel like there is time enough to do anything. everything. and i often think that summer days seem so long, the perfect ones so endless, not really because the light lasts so long into the evening, or really, rather, the night, but more so because a whole lifetime passes in summer time before the clock has even struck noon. perhaps it is the knowledge of how hot it will be later in the day, how heavy and stagnant and unrelenting the heat will be by mid afternoon, that invokes that sense of anything that needs to be done today should be done now, while i can still function. i should tackle my to do list now, while it's not too bad out, before peak sun hours (any good child of the shore, be it east coast or west, knows and knows without having to think about it, that the best hours for sun are between 10am and 2pm), and then i can frolic for the rest of the day. because there is nothing better than frolicking for the rest of a summer day...

*from lewis carroll's through the looking glass