A SUMMER DAY

“I would not exchange my leisure hours for all the wealth in the world.” - Comte de Mirabeau

Another perfect Summer day again, with beautiful weather and the holiday mood firmly imprinted on everyone’s mind. After this long, long winter and cold, gray Spring, this Summer day today was a gift, given us just for the holidays. We had another lazy day, going out for a walk, this time to the Yarra River, past our local shopping strip and across the main road. The shops were mostly open, although it was gratifying to see some with a “closed” sign hanging on their door. I am all for limited shopping hours. A weekend is a weekend. Let the shopkeepers also enjoy it. Let the shop assistants enjoy it. Christmas is Christmas, holidays are holidays, let the shops remain closed.

We have been converted into a society of consumers, all of us blindly shopping till we drop at all hours of the day and night, weekdays and weekends, on working days and on holidays. We feel withdrawal symptoms as soon as we are unable to run into a shop and buy, buy, buy useless things that wreck our lives. We turn to the internet where we are assured of being able to consume, buy and spend 24 hours a day, 365 days a year… Enough is enough! The best things in life are free, they cannot be bought.

Free, like this perfect summer day today, a priceless gem of a day. A day of rest and relaxation, with sun and light breeze, with blooming flowers and buzzing of bees and the flitting by of dragonflies. Of a walk down to the riverside, where the water flowed slowly as if dancing a stately sarabande. Where the people laughed and shouted, ate and drank, spent time with friends and family, fed the ducks, kicked a ball, went out boating on the water. A day like the canvas of an impressionist, worthy of being taken and pressed between the pages of a memory book.

A Summer Day

At last, the warming rays have bleached the day
The skies are blue, with wisps of summer cloud;
The gentle breeze makes leaves dance and play,
While dragonflies dart about the blossoms proud.

The river slowly flows and water sparkles, shines
The crowds loll about the grassy shores, with laughter
Drinking, picnicking, toasting beneath the shady pines;
Relaxing, dozing, counting dreams for a long time after.

The day is perfect: Warm, lazy tender, balmy, sweet
Our time of rest inviting idleness, persiflage and banter.
Enjoy this gem of a day, take it as given, a rarest treat;
For summer’s over soon, as horses - gone in crazy canter.