Sunday.

I have conflicting feelings about the weather, today. My skin is so relieved to feel warmth and sunshine when I go outside. I feel more alive than I have in months, as though something inside is rolling over and coming out of hibernation (I'm telling you- I am a summertime girl, at heart!). But it's February 8th, and it's just a tease. And in a couple of days, it is going to be bitterly cold again. And I am going to be so sad.
I identify entirely with animals that sleep the whole winter. I could do it if I was allowed to.

But today is rousing visions and memories of summers in the South. My mouth is watering for a burger, and I would do just about anything to be sitting on the river on a boat with a coke in my hand, surrounded by the people that I love, with my skin feeling singed and browned and my hair crunchy, feeling the undulating of the boat over the waves and the hum of the motor. Just about anything.

Summer in the South is about friendship, family, and being outside. It is sitting on a dock, porch, boat, or lawn all day long, feeling the day stretch on and on, surrounded by your nearest and dearest and not wishing to be any other place in the whole world. It is sitting quietly with a beer, coke, or iced tea in your hand, watching the sun set on the water or behind the trees, hearing cicadas and crickets coming out, feeling exhausted and also tingly with being alive. If there are kids around, they will be catching fireflies and playing ball or tag, and their laughter will mingle with the evening sounds and drift around the neighborhood or across the water to neighboring docks and boats. Dinner is grilled chicken, steak, or burgers. Sometimes there's a fire after dark, and the conversation and company will continue under the stars.
Company, here, isn't about impressing anybody or being anybody. There is no pressure to perform, no cattiness, no drama and no pretense. It is just about loving the ones you're with, shooting the breeze, laughing it up, being genuine, having a blast.
It's amazing how easy it is to sit and talk all day long, how possible it is to feel completely satisfied with the company and the activities for the day, to feel that of all the places you could be and of all the things you could be doing, this is the best of both.


I miss the summer, and I love the South.