Making Magical Moments: The Best Decision I Made All Summer

September 10, 2023

BDH Here! Welcome back from summer :)

I’ve missed you all so much! This community is always top of mind, and I've done a lot of dreaming and scheming over the break. It’s always wonderful to have some space to see what bubbles up, and I’m eager for you all to experience what's getting concocted behind the scenes. It’s been a joy:)

I also hope the start of a new season hasn’t been too abrupt of a shift for you. I love September, and I adore back-to-school season, but... (whispers) I think I love summer just a little bit more?

Case in point: every other time of the year, it’s nearly impossible to voluntarily get me out of the house unless it's for work. But during warmer months, I find that I naturally and unapologetically seek out experiences that get me out of the house and make me feel good. I eat the ice cream, I take the walk, I go to the new restaurant. I break out my summer sandals.

This is a thousand percent more likely during summer because the moment I step outside I'm instantly euphoric and overjoyed by the profound nature of... well, nature! The elms and oaks that line the streets. The birds and squirrels who call them home. The flowers in gardens and between pavement cracks. And people are in much better spirits — that is until it gets too hot, but even still, the collective celebration of summer keeps the energy abuzz.

a photo from one of my favorite (and most picturesque) adventures this summer to Pennsylvania.

in the last week, I’ve fallen in love with a local Mexican eatery with the best quesadillas and tacos

summer sandals!

There is an attitude, an internal and inescapable (in the best way) joie de vivre, that seems to lead the direction of my choices. So for me, returning to the hustle and bustle of life is accompanied by an inner yearning for the good ole days of summer to never end.

But when the weather or season changes, does the commitment to savoring my life — just because — really have to all go away?

The other day, I was on a post-dinner stroll with my husband and we stumbled upon a group of senior musicians having band practice outdoors. Now, if these musicians had been high-schoolers in a garage, this moment would have looked like any other after-school practice, but there was something special about this motley crew crammed together on their small lawn.

One person was standing on the porch playing a xylophone, while another was on the steps playing the guitar. And sitting in lawn chairs were the pianist, drummer, and lead guitarist/singer. There was no audience, but I didn't get the sense there was an expectation for one anyway. Their jam session was just that — a chance to practice and be together. My husband and I only stayed for five minutes and I remember thinking to myself, “Now this — THIS is the stuff of life!”

It’s not like any part of this was an “event.” You could say this was typical suburban life in a sense: musicians having weekly band practice on the lawn and a couple taking an after-dinner walk. These are not once-in-a-lifetime events, yet they become once-in-a-lifetime memories.

I experience these moments of mundane euphoria constantly during summer.

Then the school year starts.

Even though I’m an adult and not enrolled in school, for whatever reason, my brain says to me, “It’s September, and September is when you get serious.” But really, Bryce?

I also wonder, is it summer that I miss? Or do I miss specific routines I consciously pick up during the summer and unconsciously drop during the rest of the year?

Evening walks are a new routine my husband and I started in July. When our kids were young, we’d take them on a “pajama walk” before bed, but as homework and friendships developed, there was less interest in trekking outside for nightly walks as a family (especially in pajamas!). If either my husband or I wanted to go on a walk, it needed to be individually or during school hours.

Starting our family at 25 put my husband and me on a routine hamster wheel that we're just starting to get off with our son now a junior in high school and our daughter in 7th grade. While our routines are still centered around kid and family activities, my husband and I are both feeling the freedom of having older kids and all the pleasures that come with having a bit more unstructured time.

these are the Dixiedelics in Fullerton, California (not the band that I saw), but you get the vibe!

Our other neighbors, a beautiful couple in their 60s/70s, walk together every night without fail year-round — not just in the summer. Seeing them stroll all these years made me long for what they have: the ability to walk out of the house with their partner and not be needed or reached for up to two hours.

“They are in a different season of life,” my husband assured me.

This summer, though, we felt a shift. It was like we suddenly became our neighbors, a happy couple with older kids taking a leisurely walk after dinner. Did we enter a new season of our life as parents? Or was this just… something we did over the summer?

There’s a part of me that feels selfish (Mom guilt sucks), but I also can’t ignore the joy that comes from spending time with my husband and discovering my neighborhood as if for the first time, every single night.

What if Mom and Dad keep going for daily walks in the evening… year-round?

I’m immensely grateful to be able to have these seemingly simple experiences that genuinely fill me with such wonder and awe. I believe, when you find an activity or routine that makes you feel more connected to “the stuff of life,” you do what you can to protect it. I’m certainly planning to continue my daily walks and I’ll report back as the year progresses!

I’ve noticed that the transition to fall has me thinking a lot about my habits, the ones I’m aware of and the ones I’m not — more on this in the next issue:) I’d love to hear some routines YOU have recently adopted. Did you start because it was a new season of the year or a new season of your life? What do you hope to hold onto as we get into the “hustle and bustle” of fall?

What does it take for your seasonal activity to become a lasting ritual?

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“These are not once-in-a-lifetime events, yet they become once-in-a-lifetime memories.”

~ Bryce Dallas Howard

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