The last weeks of July/first weeks in August are the luxurious height of summer in Coastal Maine, but they also contain the first subtle hints that the journey towards Fall has begun. The scent of everything in full bloom floats through the air, the heat is at its pinnacle, the thunderstorms are the most welcome and wildest feature of a humid afternoon. Farm stands are busy, bug spray is essential, and the water is the warmest it will ever be until this time next year.

But now there is a perceptible shift in our days as we ride the track of daylight. We are descending now, saying goodbye to a sprinkle of minutes of light in the morning and at dusk, having crested the top on the roller coaster ride that is day length in New England. It chugs us upward, ever faster to arrive at the summer solstice, where it hovers briefly, and then tilts us into the drop, gaining speed every week until we arrive at the shortest days of the year.

Every once in a while now the top of a tree teases us with a glimpse of the first few leaves that are changing. Each season informs us when there is no going back, and this is summer’s message.

Now is the time to relish every bit of what we love about this season, and to release everything we work hard to cope with. In six months I will strain to remember what going barefoot felt like.

For anyone who is sensitive in any way to changes in climate, weather, seasons, light, (or all of these), we are well reminded that our ability to be affected by our world and all its creatures, by other humans and the events we create, is above all a call to the sacredness of our vulnerability, our deep potential to be kind and to want to contribute to a better world for all, and to our intuition which always guides us toward the highest good for the greatest number. We thrive in the energy that connects us all to each other and to the infinite.

Let’s all wiggle our toes today, in celebration of the now, of the willingness to be guided, of the decency we can see in others everyday if we look for it.