Ode to Summer

I inhale their sunscreen skin as i pack them up for the pool. This has become my favorite smell of summer. Well, that and fresh cut grass. Which i get lots of fresh cut grass and sunscreen skin smells all summer long. The boys are ALL BOY, tan and sweet. Dirt under finger nails, blisters on feet and eyes open wide for adventure. Their papa is right alongside them...all boy, wide eyed and ready. My tomboy nature comes in handy around these boys. Their hair growing blonder and longer as we play in lakes, and YMCA oceans of blue (Chlorine). Ah Summer! how gratetful i am for Thee!  At night there is a depth of warmth in the air enveloping you like a hug... a honeysuckle sweetness to smell. Fireflies twinkle in fields of green like earthly stars you can catch in your hand. They light up inside the cup of my boys closed hands as their eyes widen with the wonder of it all. Amos likes to crush them..learning this lesson of light and dark, this display of life and death..the tangible mingling of fragile and power. He grabs more light in his hand...gentler this time. We place fireflies in Mason jars. Oh! these glimpses of The Creator! The strawberries in my garden are red and ready to pick, ( the ones not eaten by slugs and snakes) aromatic , warm and sweet to eat. The tomatoes grow larger and deeper green announcing the ripening of summer.  Thunder bellows in the distance of the glowing half light dusk . Streaks of light interrupt growing darkness...warm rain falls and the earth gets fed.  And now my children experience this summer dance  anew : the cadence of the locust by day , the crickets melody at night... enchantment fading into daylight. The birds songs in the morning are short and sweet announcing His mercies are new.....