Reflections of Summer

"The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity."   -Andre Gide, French writer, 1947 Nobel Prize for Literature

This summer truly was the best of my entire life. We traveled, we played, we splashed and rode bikes and hiked, and simply enjoyed being alive, as a family, in a foreign country. But, as every mom of energetic children knows, summer is also a time of noise and exuberance, and requires extra energy and patience to actually be able to enjoy it. Yes, now my boys are back in school, tucked into their routines, and now I have a little time for quiet. And I enjoy that, too ...

If time could be like a stretch of water, then my summer is like the photograph above, taken in Croatia a few months ago: rich with color, rippled with a summer breeze, and brightened by a shimmering sky.

Some days, the water characterizing my life looks like this photograph, above, taken of the crashing waves at the Portland (Maine) Head Light: turbulent, frothing, and spilling over with energy. On those tumultuous times of life, being creative and writing is almost impossible, because of the storms. But those times where our emotions are stirred and we are being stretched (also like the top photo, where life is colorful and brave), we are filled with new experiences and can tap into them later ...

... Like on days with this photograph, of a single rowboat tethered in Maine, bobbing along an alluring blue sea. This is the place where creativity happens: in stillness. In the refuge from the storms, stirred up by life's emotions, but with a clear surface that reflects life's real experiences into our art and creative works. This is where the richness begins ...

... And develops with much coaxing and revision and editing, into a work of beauty, reflecting something intangible yet irresistible with a fresh perspective on something as old as time. Words on paper, oils on canvas, images captured through a lens: spaces of art and beauty and meaning to share. There, in the serenity, we can see the reflection of something deeper, something bigger and greater than the surface, and can be inspired for more of an adventure-filled life.

Starting the conversation: What was your summer like? What are your ideal conditions for living and life and creating?

Good Books and Shelf-Space

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." -Dr. Seuss 

In June, the five in our family made a goal to read ten books this summer. It was a great challenge, during these wonderful months of an untangled schedule and sunshiny days, that we make reading a priority.

My boys immersed themselves in worlds of fantasy and humor, places inhabited by Beasts, funny Mr. Gum, potty-humored Super Diaper Baby, adventures in Tunnels, and the always-a-hit Batman and Star Wars. And usually, after time reading, they couldn't wait to share the lavish tales and terrible troubles of their fictional friends. What a great peek into the mind and interests of a child! So fun for me ... to watch their excitement in the new places they would go in their reading. 

We now have books used as doorstops, as they've again run out of shelf-space ...

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.  ~Anna Quindlen, "Enough Bookshelves," New York Times, 7 August 1991

  
Our adult bookshelves also run over-- which makes me smile. Above, a peek into my recent shelf-space of books. Out of the many books I've read over the last few months, I have loved the worlds of a few:

• The Art of Racing in the Rain: Wow-- this was a beautiful book that not only surprised me with its depth but also with its important story. Told from the perspective of the family dog (really!), the angle on the family's struggles and the dog's role in holding them all together amazed me. The strain applied to Enzo the dog's family by extended family is a stress so familiar, the story strikes hard ... and lingers, well past the final page. I enjoyed this book immensely. by Garth Stein.
• The Mountain Between Us: I enjoyed this moving story for its setting in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, and the depiction of the power of love to help us survive past pain. Well-told by Charles Martin, one of my favorite authors.
• The Shell Seekers: In rereading this classic, I'm rediscovering Rosamunde Pilcher's brilliance in sustaining vivid characters, and the deep pain she's able to recreate in their relationships. A fantastic portrayal of family and the rift caused by those who take toward those who give. 
• The Help: This breakout novel shines for its authentic characters and unique glimpse into the South at an unpopular time and topic in USA's history. A big thank you to Kathryn Stockett for sharing her exquisite world. 
• On Writing: Even though it's a non-fiction book in my list of summer reading, I can't help but place it among books I have loved reading. Because I do love it. For writers and avid readers, Stephen King gives a rich look into the life he lives turning out well-loved stories and reflecting on the creative process. I'm not sure, as a writer, that I could ever read this book enough.
  
  
  
  For the other books I've read, and enjoyed or not enjoyed reading--I defer to literary agent Nathan Brantford's excellent post on the judge of quality. Not everyone likes a certain book. For a novel I like, there may be 100x more people who do not like it. And vice versa. But, the judge should be if a book achieves what the author set out to accomplish in writing that book. I wholeheartedly agree. There are books that do not strike me in my reading taste, but that are well-done and accomplished what the author intended. A wonderful way to approach new books, I think.
  
  
  So, as I delve into writing my next novel, I am confident that not only are our shelves bursting with stories immersing us in new worlds, but that has reading become a fixed habit in our house, and also a destination worth pursuing.   

Starting the conversation (leave a comment below): What books have you enjoyed reading recently? What are you reading now?

Destination Alps: A Summer Roadtrip

Posted on August 3, 2010

It is not down in any map; true places never are. ~Herman Melville

This past weekend, we ventured on a summer roadtrip– which we loved– to the Alps. The photos say so much more than any words I could form, so this week, I’m posting my favorite photos from our daytrip to the Austrian Alps (from Prague).

 

On the Road: Destination Alps

Driving South through Czech Republic

Nearing Salzburg, Austria

Sharp rise into the Alps

Sailing

Serenity

Town colors

Wolfgangsee region

Paragliders in the clouds above

the View I love

The View North, from the top

Wolfgangsee

The Drive home to Prague

Starting the Conversation: Do you have favorite photos from a roadtrip to share? (paste a link with a comment, below, in the comments) I’d love to see where you travel, too!

Snapshots of Summer

Posted on July 13, 2010

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.  ~Henry James

I love summer and its carefree days. Summer has been good when days become timeless, leaving snapshots in my mind of the things I treasure most. Like boats bobbing like corks upon vast azure water. Splashing and fun in a pool. A dog shaking off from a quick swim. Summer sunsets, and colors reflected upon the water. Flower stands near the Sea. Yes, to me, these are the Snapshots of Summer.

Summer arrived in all its splendor this week: bright sunshine, cloudless skies, and water everywhere. To celebrate, I’d like to share … a few photos I’ve dug out from the images lodged in my mind. To me, this is Summer in all her beauty:

Flowers for Sale, Countryside, USA

Rowboat, Waiting

Summer Evening on the Coast of Maine

Shake after Swim

Setting Summer Sun, Maine

Starting the Conversation: What is Summer to you? What are your favorite parts of Summer? Are you stopping to enjoy these this year?

The Alps and the Impossible

Posted on June 29, 2010 

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. ~John Muir


Saturday, we hopped in the car and set off for Austria, for a day of hiking the Alps. To feel the colors, breathe the views, experience a moment in paradise. As I sit now in my writing chair, the views we saw, the whole Alps experience seems surreal and impossible, in the grandest sense of both words.

Dreaming up driving to the Alps from Prague just for the day sounds like the old saying: “You can’t get there from here.” But we can. And did. I’m so glad I brought my camera to prove it to myself.


The difference between Austria and Czech could not be more stark, though they are neighbors. Compared to Austria and its sunny disposition, Czech Republic still frowns from its years under Soviet communism. Austria’s optimism seems to bring an extra sunshine at the border. We ventured to the Salzburg Lakes region, near Wolfgangsee to the town of St. Gilgen.

From there, we rode a cable car to the next peak, high above St. Gilgen. With some of the world’s most amazing views, we ate at the Hut. Clouds scraped our heads as they passed, and cowbells clanked from the herd grazing on the steep meadow below.

At the peak meadow, paragliders took flight in throngs around us.

And we hiked trails winding among peaks, and stood in awe.

My belief still stands that the Austrian Alps are the closest place to paradise I’ve ever experienced. Where else does heaven meet earth in such a grand fashion, where humans and nature have coexisted for centuries … where paragliders fly, and sailors grab at wind, and hikers may tread among clouds and meadows?

Can the Alps be more beautiful?

Truly, we not only gained the impossible view of the world, from Austria’s eternal beauty, but gained hearts filled and refreshed. These images will have to remind me until the next time we venture … to the Alps.

Starting the Conversation: Do you have a favorite place to hike, walk, or experience nature?

Prague's Summer Countryside

Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844

Field of Poppies, Prague

Just a little down the winding road, on the edge of the mountain overlooking Prague, Summer stretches out and quilts the ground in all her loveliness. It’s as if the sky squeezed every drop out of the color of lemon and poured it out over the landscape.

Lemon-squeezed Field, Prague

But just across the road, lined with ageless fruit trees, the sky painted blinding crimson into a field of Poppies.

Poppy

Though I wrote about the swirling yellow fields a few weeks ago, I cannot escape that I am continually captivated.

Poppy Field, overlooking Prague

Years ago, on the tiny oceanside town of Somesville, Maine, I stumbled upon this field of lupine. Somehow, indescribably, the beauty in these flowering fields clings to me. And I am inspired, and moved, and refreshed. I wanted to share, in case these photographs might instill Summer and refreshment and vast beauty into your heart as well.

Lupine field, Somes Sound, Maine, USA

Here’s to summer, and to the loveliness that can be found on the less traveled trail …

Continuing the Conversation: What is your favorite flower of Summer? Do you have a memory of summer beauty that has stayed through time?

PS. I’m in the process of migrating my blog to my site hosted page on WordPress. I love it on WordPress already! Thank you for being patient in the changeover, and a huge thank you to the developers at WordPress. -JK

Blueprint for a Great Summer

"A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing,

and the lawn mower is broken."

-James Dent

Northern Michigan camping trip, my four boys

Few things excite me more than summer vacation. Especially a wide-open summer vacation with my boys.

Last summer (2009), summer became a crowded time for selling our house and cars, tending to one of our son's severely broken arm, and moving across the globe to Czech Republic. We still made time for swimming (though it became a series of hotel pools), and experienced many new countries and cultures along the way, but we missed the unstructured time so essential for Summer.

I love the James Dent quote, above, because of its truth ... Summer, if we don't actively guard the time to refresh, becomes an active time in entertaining ourselves, our kids, the neighbors' kids-- a merry-go-round of busyness. And soon, we slip our jackets on and step back into school-time rhythms, the summer is gone, but we haven't really had Summer.  Where does it go, so quickly?

A few years ago, I read Gordon MacDonald's excellent book entitled Ordering Your Private World. It grabbed me at the beginning chapter, defining his personal experience with achieving, ambition, and "the day he hit the wall." I think most of us in this busy world can relate to that, "hitting the wall." And we have to seek out finding a life-balance or risk a lifetime of hitting walls.

Gordon MacDonald's father gave him this excellent advice (p 96):

"Your challenge will not be in separating out the good from the bad,

but in grabbing the best out of all the possible good."

The norm of our era makes an art out of jam-packing our days and our lives, making it feel normal to compress our days into efficient square boxes of daily chaos. And so enters the concept of Summer.

How can we use this Summer to create a season of play, of refreshment, and of grabbing the best out of all the possible good?

In our house, we've been actively making a list on a wipe-board, accessible to see it, follow it, and at a height so that everyone in our family can make their contributions. We might call it our Blueprint for a Great Summer. It says, "What Do We Want to Do this Summer?" And below, a running list of the things we want to do--swimming, basketball, hiking, biking, reading, etc.--along with a few key places we want to go. Because if we don't mark it down and check it off as we go and act intentionally with our days, too soon they are gone.

"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

This summer, I'm looking forward to making time for the best of all possible good (family, quiet, travel, adventure, laughter), and to working more toward that balance in life that Ordering Your Private World describes. To days recharging while watching the grass grow ... to all things best ... to the broken mower ... and to Summer.

Starting the Conversation: What do you look forward to doing this summer? What does all things best mean to you?

A Shot of Floral Color for the Dead of Winter

"God gave us our memories so that we might have roses in December." -J.M. Barrie

Every year at about this time, my eyes feel deplete of color. Whether this year it's from the thick froth of snow blanketing my world white, from the soft gray European light, or from the daily veil of Prague fog, I don't know ... but this January, I need a shot of color. So I thought I'd share ...

This floral beauty is the Lavender Illusion daylily, from our former backyard (top photo, also) in the States. Somehow, creation flaunts hues impossible to replicate by humans. This color, a lavender veined in soft lilac and highlighted with delicate pink, has a magical sheen in the sunlight-- as if a fairy sprinkled each day's lily with enchanting pixie dust. Adding the vibrant lime-colored throat and neon stamens, the whole flower is a carnival of color.

Thanks for enjoying a taste of summer's beauty with me.

Starting the conversation: (leave a comment below) What are your favorite flowers from summer?

The Simple Joys of Summer

“Live Simply, Live Well.”

In our kitchen, we have a sign hanging above the doorway with the quote: “Live Simply, Live Well.” For some reason, those four words strike a harmonious chord down deep within me, and probably in many ways sums up the values I hold close—family, friends, love, laughter—the simple things.

Summer is the season for simplicity, I think. Sun, warmth, barbeques, pool-side conversation, splashing and playing, and, of course, garden flowers and fruits and veggies. There is nothing better than slowing down and soaking up some sun, joining friends for great food, and enjoying the simpler things. Living simply, living well …

We’ve been harvesting our best crop ever of garden raspberries. Maybe the abundant rain mixed with sunshine has done the trick, as opposed to other years with hardly any rainfall, but the boys and I have picked a couple gallons of raspberries this June (which doesn’t include the handfuls we’ve consumed right off the vine!). It’s been a sweet time, a delicious month of enjoying some of life's simpler things.

Also, since I love to photograph the living canvas of blooming art outside our back door, I’m pasting in a few shots that capture some of the beauty I’ve been enjoying.

The Back Border garden coming to life: Pandora’s Box daylilies, lithrum, Russian sage, scabiosa, Becky daisies, Greetings rose, miscansis grasses.

Lavendar Illusion daylily, one of my favorites

Heirloom Tall Garden Phlox, with a fragrance that perfumes the entire yard!

Enjoy your summer, and don’t forget to make time to savor the simplicity of the season ... :)

-Jennifer