I have just noticed that I haven't written any blogs about the Summer or even any during the Summer... I guess the reason is that I'm not really a Summer person. When Summer arrives it's luminous eye is too harsh for me, too bright, too hot. Its hellish glare blinds me and the heat slows my brain down to the point of sizzling... I lose my patience, I find it hard to deal with people, with the continuous watering of my garden. By the time it cools down and the light gets softer, in the evening, I'm too cooked to do anything at all. The fields are all yellow and brown and a fastidious haze obscures all the landscape. I don't sleep properly at night and waking up to another blue sky sometimes makes me want to cry.
And yet it is the time of the year when people come from all over the World - people who praise the beauty of Umbria in this sunny season. They love the outdoor life, sailing, swimming, Umbria Jazz, Trasimeno Blues, open air cinema, live music in the squares, festivals on the lake shores, medieval fairs and market stalls... yes there is a lot to do and see and enjoy, I can't negate it....
Maybe I should shift my thinking of the Summer, stop dreading it so much, go beyond “I'm hot” and try and appreciate more what this lovely region has to offer in these holiday months to all the people who come and to all of us who have the luck of living here all year round.
I feel I really should try and shift my feeling of the World right now too.
In this difficult time of history where so much hatred and cruelty is spreading across the planet it is hard not to feel a deep sense of sadness in your soul. A constant weight on your chest, ceaseless worrying that something is about to happen to those you love...
I'm so sick of Mankind's Stupidity and Evil to the point that it's nearly impossible to be light-hearted, a gloomy heaviness pervading my heart. It seems clear to me, however, that unless we let love and light through, there is truly no hope. It's a matter of shifting prospectives, getting unstuck from how we strongly feel. Seeing things from another point of view, changing our feelings about something and consequently changing our World.
So what I say is: let's let Summer light up our darkened souls and warm our cold hearts with its rays. The Sun, the source of life itself: harsh and brutal and warm and comforting at the same time– one thing is for sure – whether in good or in bad it enlightens the way. It is Truth and there is no hiding from the Truth.