Heart wide open

There is something about June and the advent of summer that opens up my heart in gratitude for the beauty, endurance and abundance of our world.

Perhaps it’s the flowers that captivate me when I take my walks at work on my lunch hour. Maybe it’s the vegetable garden that my husband plants in May. It’s just mid-June and the plants are sturdy and budding with flowers soon to become a rich harvest. Already, we are plucking lettuce for salads, radishes to tingle on our tongues and greens to steam for dinner. Can tomatoes be far behind?

There’s more though. I can ride my bike to the beach and spend an hour in lazy contemplation, while the sun glimmers on the waters of Lake Erie, and children splash in the shallows.

My neighbors are out and about working in their yards, stopping by to chat, asking gardening advice, talking about summer plans.

Everything is bursting with life and the summer song of breeze and bird can be heard constantly through open windows.

There is no better time of year to turn down the volume of our inner chatter, and with hearts wide open, ratchet up our awareness and gratitude to the evidence of God’s ongoing and active creation within nature and within ourselves as participants in the creativity of the vast universe.

Syndie Eardly