Dog Days Are Over

No, my friend. They've just begun. That sun is hard and bright and scorching hot. 

But you know I adore the sun. Who doesn't like fruit and vegetables, having a tan, hot fun in the summertime? The sun is an important nourishment, no? The nourishment. The energy. 

We ask for it to come closer in the winter--but it's distant and far away. And then we beg for it to back off in the summer--but it's suffocating and stifling. In Mississippi, it can feel like the sun has wrapped in its golden fingers around you, engulfed you in its fist of blinding heat, holds you still, slows you down, turns your face beet-red. Makes it hard to breathe, fostering laziness and fogginess in the mind. 

Truly, the sun is only a broad-spectrum mother, bending and stooping towards the earth, giving attention and nourishment--vitality and discipline. 

This is the discipline part of her parenting.

So the trick when it gets really hot like this...

Even when it's 97 degrees, we've got to keep going, keep breathing. 

Keep your eye on the ball. Keep your eye on the prize, what you love, what you believe in.

Keep going. Even if it feels like you can't breathe.

Determinedly,

Liza Jane