A Glorious Summer
I savoured every moment of this glorious summer.
SUMMER 2025
I woke up slowly in my cozy bed and appreciated the morning light. I drank my tea on my quaint patio. I breathed in the scent of morning and summer. I cared for my flowers. I listened to piano and jazz. I chatted with my older neighbor - a lovely woman - between her loads of laundry. I read. I listened to the birds sing and learned to identify them with an app. I felt pretty in my beautiful pajamas and loungewear. I painted my toenails a vivid red.
I ate croissants, bowls of fresh strawberries with yogurt and lavender honey, juicy peaches, and cherries. I drank matcha lattes, mint herbal tea with orange blossom water, and all kinds of black and green teas. Lemonade too, with a touch of that lavender honey.
I went swimming. I felt the cool water glide over my skin and the warm sun dry it afterward. I stretched out on a blanket in the park and slept beneath a tree with a massive, deeply wrinkled trunk. I watched its leaves dance above me like mobiles. I admired the water in the pond, shimmering like silver coins. I imagined other times, when parks were fashionable gathering places, when my father was young and played with a uniformed civic band in the parks during the summer in the ’60s.
I imagined myself in the South of France. I watched French films, including La Belle Noiseuse, which deeply moved and inspired me and transported me to Occitanie. I listened to French music and drank cocktails while imagining myself in Saint-Tropez. I made beautiful, colourful salads with the flavours of the Mediterranean, along with simple, delicious snacks. I played cards so I could feel the cards - and the present moment - in my hands.
I did the chores we always put off until tomorrow for lack of time or desire. I decorated, rearranged, refined, cleaned, and threw things away. I daydreamed and romanticized. I indulged my curiosity. I read, listened, searched, asked questions, and reflected. I reinvented the world - and my own.
I kept the windows open to let summer in. I lingered outside by candlelight on warm evenings and breathed in the scent of flowers as they filled the air at dusk.
I lived my life slowly, at my own pace, with care. I breathed deeply. I gave thanks for and savoured every moment of this glorious summer.
- Mari Berlin 🖤
FURTHER
- La Belle Noiseuse (1991), also known as The Beautiful Troublemaker - full film with English subtitles on YouTube
- Parasol | My French music playlist, created and curated by me, on Substack