Summer can be lazy, hectic, endless, or fleeting. Sometimes we put a lot of pressure on summer to be the thing that fills us back up. While your plans and this season may deliver on your expectations, keeping this quote in mind takes the pressure off and opens the door to finding relief and joy along the way, whether your time off is fantastic or non-existent.
“Put yourself in the way of beauty.” – Cheryl Strayed
You spend so much of your time inside the walls of a hospital. You may drive to work in the dark and then rush back to your car after a day of caring for fragile babies, frantically late for the people who need you at home – every single day, month, and year. Weeks may pass, and you forget to even look up at the sky.
Try this one tiny tweak instead: Prioritize putting yourself in the way of beauty no matter what you have planned this summer. It doesn’t require paid time off, plane tickets, or the picture-perfect family. It requires you to step off the hamster wheel for a moment and turn your attention, however briefly, to something you find beautiful. And then drink it in.
Over time, this becomes a habit that heals, an intentional nod to the gifts of summer that you can carry year-round—an intentional nod to your one precious life.