The Innocence of Summer

We had our pastor's daughter over last Wednesday. It was so fun. Anyways. We caught 2 butterflies and let one go because we thought it was dead but it wasn't. As we were catching butterflies and taking summer walks (it was *very hot* but we had a good time), and running home to sip some ice cold water I was thinking..

This is summer. I didn't feel 16 I felt like I was 10 again. I felt like making mud pies. It was so fun. It was..sweet simplicity. It was, traveling back in time back to the innocence of summer. Don't you miss that? Don't you miss the days when we sat back and enjoyed the simple things in life? Barefoot everywhere be it baking tar, cement, grass, etc. It don't matter. I aint wearing shoes. Remember those days?

Somehow summer seems to have lost it's innocence. We forget to "take time to sniff the roses". But this summer, this is the summer of innocence. I've enjoyed a slow summer, what some people would think dull. But it was so laid back, so chill. Time to take delight in the loveliest of simple things.

It's like running through the sprinklers at 12 am with friends because their air conditioner is broken and it's a way to cool off. It's like laying down and gazing at stars even though you can't point out any constellations. It's like catching butterflies in mason jars with a 9yo, 10yo, 12yo, and 16yo.

It's like reading in a comfy chair on the porch with iced tea or cold water. It's bonfires on warm summer nights that get cool when the sun goes down. It's sitting down, knees up, with a friend crying because you have a crap load of a mess spiritually. It's working through that, wrestling it, muddling through the mud with your friend. It's awkwardly saying you love the friend even though on both sides you really do love that friend but your both bad with words. You feel it passionately, you feel it but you can't always express it as much as you feel it. But you know, it's the knowing that they really do love you and take time to say it.

It's the going to the mall and walking everywhere and finding couches to sit on and texting your friends when they're right next to you and it's the laying on a friend's shoulder, half hidden behind a pillow in case the movie is creepy. It's the love and affection you have for your friend you can eat each other's food, hug each other randomly, put an arm around your friend's shoulder's spontaneously just because; invading their personal space but they let you and they do the same to you because you guys love each other.

It's the goofy conversations, the many laughs, the chaos in trying to plan times to hang out, the misunderstanding/mishearing what was really said and laughing so hard at it afterwords. It's the letter writing to still loved friends but very much missed friends.

It's laying down for bed falling asleep to music and waking up with music. It's the sitting and doing nothing, and spending all your nothing time wondering about doing something. It's the late night movie watching. It's these little things, the innocence of summer.

~Elisabeth Darcy