The Power of Summer

2007 Archives, In Memory of Jane Flink

By: Jane Flink

New things are invigorating. They kick-start all our senses. Touch, vision and hearing all respond to newness. We play a new CD twice as often as the old favorites we’ve heard so many times before. The softness of a new shirt quickly makes it our favorite garment. Holding a newborn baby is so overwhelming that it drowns our senses. Newness can deprive us of words, a factor, maybe, in the persistence of baby talk. I love Monday mornings, the beginning of a new week full of hidden possibilities. The mornings of a new season are the super-sized versions of every Monday, and now that summer is here, I rise up singing. Jen has stepped up to garden tasks I can’t do anymore, and I fall back on the role of Administrative Assistant — I clip unwanted growth and fetch and carry whatever she needs for the big jobs. Jen has The Power this July when it comes to the gardens. The Power is something like “The Force” in Star War:. You don’t summon it. It simply appears. The Power is a welcome force whenever it arrives, infusing you with the strength of ten. Or maybe more. From the kitchen where I am working I can see through the dining room windows our neighbors out walking this sunny morning. Walkers are swinging along, singly or in family groups. Indoors,we have established a assonant synergy – spit and polish making steel and wood glow. Given the outdoor swing and the indoor scrub,; this corner of Ashland is encouraging the building of strong bodies and sparkling houses, The Power is skhowing off, demonstrating its strength wherever it touches down. Kitchen chores done, I step back to admire the gleaming steel faucets and unblemished counters, and it comes to mind that nobody will “drop in: today. People never come to visit when the house is immaculate. They wait till The Power has taken a day off, till it’s 11 a.m. and we are still rambling around the house in our pajamas, brainwashed by a new book or a wealth of tumbling thoughts. Visitors are most likely to ring the bell when the newspapers and magazines are strewn all over the place and there are cracker crumbs on the carpet. No matter how hard I try to steer guests toward the living room (which is usually orderly) they tell me what me hay, they’re just home folks, and the kitchen is good enough for them and they march past me into chaos. As the Power comes and goes with the days of the week or the season of the year, we are are wise to corner it at every opportunity. With the Power at work within us, we can make amazing progress in cleaning up and clearing out, attacking patches of weeds in a neglected garden, mowing the entire yard or refurbishing the porch furniture for a fresh look for the summer season. Today is a special Monday. Last week, we celebrated the Fourth of July. As the fanfares echo in the growing distance behind us. we fours on the forward. After today we go down into deep summer where fireflies wink in warm hazy dusk , trees sway in a hot wind that flushes our cheeks, pure sun warms the top of our heads and tans our skin. No Power needed just here, just at this moment. Early summer is invigorating enough. It lifts us up, carries us along, and eventually will deposit us, nicely warmed, on on the brink of yet another new season, in the arms of sweet September.