Courage

I went running in a bathtub a few days back, and I even enjoyed it.

It was not as steamy as a sauna, but certainly a bathtub - I swam through waves of warm, damp air in the fields, like the streams of warmer and cooler water in Lake Michigan. The air was still, 11:00 in the morning, 85 degrees, silent except for the ever-companionable cicadas. I am not usually glad to be wearing a hat when I run - it makes me feel like I can't see - but I was very thankful for it this day as the light glared down and sweat plopped off all parts of me onto the steaming asphalt.

The beans (that's soybeans, you) were radiating buttery sun, the corn was barely waggling its tassels, the birds must have been sleeping somewhere.

Summer is generally my least favorite season. This one has been one of my most favorite ever. The weather, the time with my kids, the getting to know friends and neighbors, the kittens, the green things that have magically bushed out in my garden. Even the brief summer heat and humidity for a week or two...I've loved it. I think I'm spoiled rotten, or getting close to it.