Memories of June

As summer begins to end, I think of the beginning of this year’s summer. I am ready to let this summer go and welcome fall, but as I think about how I’ve spent my summer this year, I think back to how it began. 

June is a soft month that slips by often as a series of overcast days. In a blink, it is overtaken by the harshness and humidity of July temperatures. I forget to appreciate June. The grey sky dampens my mood and I grumble. It feels like a month of transition where it is not spring anymore but not yet hot enough to be summer with its naturally laid-back atmosphere. I start to wish and look for change, something to get away from feeling as if I am neither in one place or another. 

When June comes again, I would like to remember to be still and appreciate its in-betweenness that is precisely what gives its soft quality. Days have lengthened and light lingers for longer than it used to in the air. The air is like a hug without the chilly breeze that cuts through the sleeves of my sweater in spring. Summer heat hasn’t arrived, so I fidget about when it will come, when I will arrive at a season that is less ambiguous. A destination that I am bound to reach. 

However, I’ve arrived already at a place that only June can provide. A place of pause that may not be clearly defined by the weather, a place to be grateful for another burial of winter and the coming of warm, bright lethargic days.