These days I can’t seem to get enough of the sun. For the last five years, I’ve spent the summers indoors, scribbling up essays or waiting tables at a restaurant. Now that I’ve graduated, most mornings I can sit outside, unhurried, and soak in the sunshine and birdsong and fresh air. It’s one of the many little moments that make this summer’s slower pace of life special. Right now, there’s a lot of heaviness in the world, and it can be easy for all the bad news to drown out the enjoyable ordinary moments of life. Still, it’s the little things that make up happiness, so today I’ve compiled a few of my quintessential favorite feelings that encapsulate summer.
Photo by Mourad Saadi on Unsplash
Summer happiness feels like…
- sunlight on bare skin
- walking barefoot on grass
- the moment when you come up for air after being underwater
- the ridges of a seashell under your fingertips
- warm sand slipping through your fingers
- putting on a soft sundress for the day
- a hot shower after a long day at the beach, washing all the sand
- putting on a sweatshirt when it starts to get chilly outside
- early evenings spent playing games outside on the lawn
- laughing so hard you can’t breathe
- riding your old bike down the roads of your hometown
- light through leaves
Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash
Summer happiness sounds like…
- discovering a new song that you’ll be playing on repeat
- flipping the pages of a book when you’re reading
- a water fountain trickling
- the crackle of wood burning on a campfire
- birds singing outside your open window in the morning
- the hum of people talking and laughing in the distance
- your music on shuffle, playing from a speaker while you’re with friends
- the background radio at your favorite coffee shop
- sandals on the sidewalk
- distant cars passing on the street, late at night
- the soft cadence of ocean waves washing onto the shore
Photo by Juja Han on Unsplash
Summer happiness tastes like…
- ice cream in a cone
- sliced peaches and nectarines
- smoothies
- a melting popsicle
- iced coffee
- berries picked fresh from the bush
- barbecue on a summer evening
- cold pasta salad
- watermelon
- ice-cold beverages on a hot afternoon
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
Summer happiness smells like….
- lemon slices in ice water
- fresh sunflowers
- citrus-scented cleaner on polished countertops
- lighting a new candle for the first time
- woodsmoke
- upturned garden soil after it’s been watered
- wildflowers on the side of the road
- crisp early mornings before the world is awake
Photo by Edoardo Busti on Unsplash
Summer happiness looks like…
- sunlight peeking through your windows in the morning
- the way people’s eyes crinkle up when they laugh
- friends sitting around a bonfire late at night
- iridescent bubbles floating through the air
- a new favorite hardcover book waiting on your nightstand
- the colors of the horizon
- vivid colors faded in the sun
- a drive-in cinema screen glowing in the late evening
- more time with people you love
- palm trees silhouetted against a sunset
- the shimmering ocean
