It is what I call high summer. All the trees are full, and their branches are thick with green leaves. The raspberry bushes in my yard beckon me to pick their ripe fruit and the warm weather lends itself to going barefoot. Truly, it is high summer and high time to hang out with friends and family.

        Nourishing 

For me, summer time is the best time to linger with friends and family. The days are longer, and my commitments are fewer. 

In the evenings, my husband and I will dawdle over dinner, grilled anything, at our picnic table in the backyard. Other times will meander, on our bikes, down to a favorite restaurant where there is outside seating. Either way, we will linger in the warm evening air, casually conversing about something, nothing and everything.  

Though my days are still filled with projects to complete; repainting the kitchen, creating lesson plans for the fall school year and watering my flower beds, I still make sure I set aside time for connecting with my girlfriends. Inviting them over for lunch and serving them a hearty salad of fresh veggies under the shade of a tree in my backyard ensures we’ll have an uninterrupted and friendly conversation. These connections are a luxury as well as a necessity. 

Not only do I get to hang out with my husband and friends during these summer days, but then there’s the grand kids too. They like to lollygag near the water and so do I. We pack plenty of food and play stuff and loiter for the day in one of our favorite bays. We make up our own rules and play wiffle ball, mosey along nature trails and stare out at the water while telling each other about our favorite foods and animal sounds. And of course, the first one to submerge themselves completely into the cold lake water wins the competition. 

All this hanging out does have its purpose and its advantages. First of all it is restorative to the brain and the body. Secondly, hanging out with the people we like and that like us makes us happier people and happy people are fun to hang out with.

Why bother hanging out? Summer time is the best time to linger, loiter and lollygag. To meander and mosey, to vegetate and rest. It is the only season, for those of us who live in the North, that we can soak up the sun and light storing in our memories, the pleasures of hanging out.