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I love spring, but I’m thinking about summer.
It’s high time to slow my roll and truly savor the sweet, laid-back season ahead. Longer days of sunshine and quiet reprieve from the colder months will surely bring a bit of peaceful gratitude.
I want to have a “good” summer, but it won’t be centered around grand vacations or spending tons of money. There will be no hustle and bustle this year, that’s for sure. For me, it’ll be about 61 things I’d like to mindfully tick off a simple (but super-duper) list—because lists are my jam!
Being truly present in all I do is the most important priority in order to savor Summer ’24—the brief, beautiful few months of time I’ll never get back.
Here are exactly 61 things I’m planning so I can wake up my spirit and simply feel alive again!
- Take a scenic hike (or two, or three, or four)
- Find a few more Rail Trails and bike ’em all
- Swim in the ocean and build a sandcastle
- Go wading in a creek in cut-offs
- Make fresh lemonade
- Spend the entire day without an agenda, but with a great friend
- Take a full moon walk and look up at the stars on a cool, clear night
- Visit a farm (calves! baby goats! ducklings!)
- Move some perennials to where they will feel better
- Make a new friend
- Plant sunflowers early for August enjoyment
- Go to a big Country Fair
- Spot an owl and then sketch it and then use watercolors to paint it and then frame it
- Invent a fabulous, new signature cocktail
- Visit an outdoor sculpture garden
- Frequent the flea market
- Shop local
- Play outside with a child
- Can some pickles
- Read, read, read
- Walk the river at Steep Rock
- Get up early for a sunrise
- Lay in the grass and look at the clouds on a carefree afternoon
- Pay it forward, buy a stranger a fresh cup of coffee (and then do it again)
- Sit by a nice fire at dusk
- Grow a big fat juicy tomato
- Sift through some second-hand shops
- Get a hefty scoop of ice cream in a sugar cone and let it drip down my wrist…once a week
- Study the birds
- Find a small winery with Adirondack chairs and music
- Watch a (local) baseball game at night under the lights
- Wash all my windows and mirrors
- Stop for a hot dog and a milkshake at a roadside stand (after a hike)
- Dance to live music at a local brewery
- Go on a boat ride and float on the lake until the sunnies nip my ass
- Get caught in a warm summer shower
- Watch the sunset on top of a mountain
- Go skinny dipping
- Camp out
- Clean the attic and the basement once and for all
- Write a poem
- Do yoga outside in the shade
- Eat some corn on the cob
- Volunteer
- Nap like it’s my job
- Pay for a top-notch spa beauty treatment
- Build a short, new walkway in my courtyard
- Bake a fresh peach pie
- Take the kayak out for a bit
- Have some neighbors over for some unsweetened iced tea and a gab session
- Get my produce from the farmer’s market
- Go fishing
- Eat a lobster roll
- Watch the fireworks
- Finish a whole jigsaw puzzle
- Pack a cooler and sit down at the town park for the live bands on Friday nights
- Plan a day trip; pick a spot not too far away and hit the road for shopping, exploring and lunch
- Reconnect with an old friend
- Learn something completely new
- Forgive, let go of everything, and move the f*ck on
- Put my damn phone down and not document any of it
Cheers to summer ’24! What would you add to this list?
~
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