Ingredients for a Summer
- At 4:30, forget the gym and have a nap in the afternoon sun.
- Forget the gym again at 5:30 and pour yourself a glug of wine in a jelly jar.
- Harvest whatever you can—however small—from your garden.
- Clutch a good novel under your arm.
- Don a sweater if the weather refuses to match the calendar.
- Walk barefoot across the just-mowed grass.
- Convince one neighbor to have freshly cut cedar planks and another to grill over charcoal. Force the wind to waft these scents your way.
- Lean heavily into a lawn chair.
- Raise your feet onto an elevated platform.
- See to it that the jelly jar is still brimming and within arm’s reach.
- Sit to read and read and read and read.
Writing in the Rain 