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Your Guide to a Magical Summer
Do less and notice more
Summer is the season of enchantment. There is something mystical about the long, hot days and the chance to relax from the rigid routines of the rest of the year.
But many people fail to experience the full magic of summer. This is especially a problem for Americans, as we tend to pack too much into this short season. We schedule our kids for camps, sports, and classes. We take vacations that are too short and which we schedule every day down to the minute.
One of the few things I retained from my two years of high school French was that many Europeans take the entire month of August off for holiday.
Taking longer blocks of time off work removes the pressure to optimize each day of summer break.
You may not be able to take a month off work this summer, but you can still give yourself a magical summer by doing less and noticing more. There are many magical summer things you can do in your hometown without spending any money. But, you have to be willing to let go of efficiency and optimization and embrace the kismet that only visits when you don’t plan anything and are willing to enjoy doing nothing.
Here are some of my favorite ways to imbue summer with the kind of magic you might have read about in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer…
