On Summer magic, flow and the power of Both/And
This summer has been a time of both/and more generally - loving spending deep, presence-filled time with my children AND being excited for the routine and stability of school to return soon. Turning down big projects to actually rest AND feeling somewhat dumb for doing that because #EntrepreneurLife makes you feel like any loss is bad. Attempting to balance both the hustle and the flow, while realizing that I’ve been living into the hustle for way, way too long and I don’t actually know what my version of flow would look like anymore. Maybe you can relate? So I’ve taken more days off than I have in the last six years, and I’ve been spending this summer finding the flow. Mostly in swimming pools, on mountain trails and on extremely slow popsicle walks, which have brought their own kind of small magic each day.
And - to be very clear! - a lot of this Summer Magic™ time with my children is also full of laundry, cleaning the kitchen 100 times a day, fielding asks for TV time and petty disagreements about who gets the purple plate or whose turn it is to hold any random toy that nobody cares about until they both do. Sometimes Summer makes me feel bad - like I’m not Summering well enough since we don’t have a boat or a house on the Cape (THE Cape? A Cape? Any sort of Cape? I’m unclear about Capes; we only have the superhero sort and I know that’s not right?) There is also an insane pressure to Summer (as a verb) perfectly this time of year and for those of us who are rolling with the ups and downs, that can feel aggressive, punitive even. Summer, too, can be a both/and, rather than a fleeting goal post we’ll never quite hit.
My questions for you this month:
What both/and are you living into* this summer? How does it feel to accept many truths at once?
Where are you hustling and where are you flowing? What’s that telling you?
What magic have you found in these long and (hopefully) sweet summer days? And if you also have children, I’m here to commiserate in any way you might also need.
My 6-year old and I just finished reading “The BFG” by Roald Dahl. Talk about magic! It’s been so fun to whisk away to 1950’s London (and Giant Country!) each night, to contemplate a life of whizpopping and frobscottle drinking, of grand adventures and saving the day. It’s also reminding me that change feels hard, but it’s also an adventure; that saying no to more work and yes to more play and silliness is worth it, and that magic can be found everywhere we look. It was Roald Dahl himself who said, “Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
Here’s to slowing down, holding both, and a few more weeks of Summer magic, whatever exactly that entails for you.
hil
