Pause where it is blooming

Free yoga on Parliament Hill sponsored by Lululemon on Wednesdays!

I come back to Ottawa from my travels and it is in full bloom, and I love that. I love how the city comes alive in the summer, not only the weather and nature, but it seems that even the  people come alive as well from the deep freeze of winter.

 

With the arrival of summery weather, I feel a collective sigh of relief.  It's like we are children again, barefoot and running through the grass into the sunshine and laughing.

We just can't get enough it and we appreciate it so much. That's the thing that's great about living somewhere like here, the appreciation and gratitude we have when the weather is nice, and the summer comes. The thing is we know it won't last, that it is has a time limit, and it will disappear so quickly.

 

 

And because we understand this, we tend to make different choices from the winter. We might put off some paperwork to go out to a patio for drinks with friends, just because we know it won't be forever. We might take up a friend for an offer to go to the lake for a swim or to a cottage though we had some other plans. We might take a break from our chores and go outside for a walk before the sun sets.

I love strolling the streets, because that's what we do in Ottawa in the summer, stroll. I believe we have different steps or beats here for different temperatures. You might not get this if you're in one of those warmer climates all year around, but might find it interesting so hear me out.

I feel like it's best explained through music. It's like we walk in a staccato beat when it's very cold. Quick detached beats of short duration, we hold our breaths, go outside to grin and bear it.

But when the warm weather comes, it's like a whole note, the longest note, we breath out to let go of the stresses and stressors of our lives. We stroll. And this time has arrived. We're in whole note season!

I love all seasons and the nature and sports in them. Each season has it's own character and beat. We have four but the winter seems to grab an inordinate amount of our time and head space.  It feels like we spend a lot of energy here keeping warm, coming in from the cold, talking about the weather and how cold it is, buying clothes to keep us warmer, consuming food and drink that will warm us up, looking for partners to keep us warm.

I love the summer for how we as a city we relax and tumble into the grass. It seems as there is a collective awakening and there is an incredible amount of activities to do outdoors. It's like being at the carnival and wondering what ride you should go on next. At the end of the day, we might be a bit burnt from being out in the sun too long and tired from squeezing in as many rides and games as possible before we have to come inside. But it's a different exhaustion, because it's doing what you love.

We don't have a remote where can push the stop or pause button for the season to wait for us. It goes so quickly, like our lives. Let's not waste it doing things we don't want to do, or minimize the parts that we don't like.

At the end of the day, it's the small things that truly matter and makes our lives meaningful.

Like eating gelato that drips on you because you can't eat it fast enough as it's melting, watching the incredible array of colours of the sunset by the water and being grateful for being alive to watch it, taking your kids to the sprinkler water park and joining in and laughing because you haven't done that since you were their age, and walking barefoot in the grass because you can

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A duck out of water, but in water, so it's happy

Pause where it is blooming, wherever it may be.

Love, Caroline xo