Welcoming summer

Despite the rather chilly temperatures at the moment (15 celsius), summer has arrived. The end of the season has come, vacations are beginning (Matthijs and I just went to Paris!), and there is time before we need to start thinking much about next season. Life takes on a slightly different rhythm, which I am grateful for. Somethng to be less grateful for is that the cat is shedding. Even though I comb him, there is still cat hair everywhere, including sometimes in food (blech).

As the small details of summer (hot weather, cat hair, organizing vacations) can sometimes overshadow the wonderful possibilities of this season, I found this prayer on Ruth's website to be a helpful way of more prayerfully welcoming in summer. Here below is a small section of the prayer, and I encourage you to go to her website to read/pray the whole prayer:

"Thank you, God, for the feelings of summer:
Freedom,
Expansiveness,
Openness,
Adventure.

Help us, gracious and hospitable God,
To use these gifts of summer to bless others.
May we use the freedom we find in our schedules to build relationships with others,
May we extend the expansive feeling, inviting people who are different than us into our lives.
May we have a special openness to others and to what you might do in us and through us.
May we be adventurous--following the Spirit's leading outside of our comfort zone. . . "