goats, carnivals & earthing…
“This is the summer of love.”
Our neighborhood has an annual tradition every May, a herd of goats move in and clear-out the tall grasses in our local park… this spectacle is also en route to the local K-8 grades, so everyone starts walking to school and hanging out with the goats. It’s a fun time in the spring sun, lots of smiles and photos, giggles and hand-feeding (oops!). The goats are the herald of summer vacation and the end of school, from that week forward, the energy in town starts to vibrate at a slightly higher pitch each week until it bursts forth at the start of summer where everyone in town celebrates at our town carnival in early June. This has absolutely become one of my favorite months of the year, one of those core memories in life… thank you goats!
Then comes my favorite month of the year, July, once best known for my birthday (on the 13th), because what kid doesn’t love her/his birthday?!! But times change as we age and I am now lucky enough to be able to enjoy my summer vacations with the kids; even though I work, my hours are flex and I can venture for weeks at a time (with the kids) during the summer and Tahoe is my refuge, in case my photography on TahoeBoho.com didn’t give it away already (haha)! Since I am reveling in traditions… one of my favorite summer traditions is to review the past year of my family’s year; nothing labored just a visceral summary of what we accomplished in the past school year, where one might need to keep a little focus over the summer to help the upcoming school year (tends to be reading), then a group focus, examples of previous years:
summer of fun
summer of love (repeated twice)
summer of getting along
I begin the first week with many proclamations to the kids, “this is the summer of love”; while we drive, before dinner, I just keep throwing down verse, “can’t wait for the summer of love – yeah!” I love these memories, they’re golden; kids cringing in the backseat threatening to jump from the car – but instead they burst into giggles – awww, mom!!
Then the summer progresses, about mid-way through I realize I dropped my mantra two weeks into summer, about when one finally lets down their guard from the work-a-day-grind and settles into vacation mode… no time for verse! A couple more weeks go by with a couple tweets that land on deaf ears and that’s when you know that summer is in full-swing.
This year, this summer, this year’s verse has been set and I am announcing it here on this blog even before I share with my family...
THIS IS THE SUMMER OF GROUNDING… I want us to practice grounding this summer and not only within the most recently found “earthing” (explained in a few paragraphs) health improvement realm, but also in the simple things of life: to bake/cook, to plan, to not plan, to walk barefoot, to grow/chop/eat a lot of produce, to lay on the grass, to lean on a tree, to dance and just be.
So, cheers to the summer of grounding… and to make this even more fun, I am sending this out as an earnest INVITATION FOR ALL MY READERS to share some of your grounding stories/photos from the summer of 2016 on my Facebook page “Peace Love & Eternal Grooviness”. I plan to share my summer via Facebook (for the first time in my life) and I cannot wait to get inspired by all of your summer fun as well!!
Time to share a little something from the Earthing Institute, Reconnect to the Earth!...
Throughout time, we humans have sat, stood, strolled and slept on the ground -- the skin of our bodies touching the skin of the Earth.
And throughout time, such ordinary contact served as a conduit for transferring the Earth’s natural, gentle negative charge underfoot into the body. You see, we are bioelectrical beings living on an electrical planet.
Modern Lifestyle has disconnected us from this primordial charge.
Earthing, also known as grounding, is the landmark discovery that the disconnect may make us more vulnerable to inflammation, pain, stress, poor sleep, and illness. Ongoing research is demonstrating clearly that reconnecting with the Earth upholds the electrical stability of our bodies and serves as a foundation for vitality, health and healing. In an age of rampant chronic inflammation and disease, “grounding” ourselves provides a natural, simple yet powerful path to better health.