I love Summer. I loooong for it by Spring. Right before it arrives I fantasize about it, imagining all the fun and sun I will soak in.  I imagine luxuriating in quietude and peace, natural settings and beauty. I imagine kids playing, running for the ice cream truck, rainy days and movies. In my imagination it’s perfect, sweet, nostalgic, and timeless. And yet.  While it’s happening, it’s usually not how I imagine it.  I get caught up – in the planning and prepping, the getting to and from all the activities, one after the other. When the long-awaited planned and prepped thing is finally happening I get caught up in thinking about what needs to happen next and about how and when I can take a break and recover from the thing. It all feels so planned, so jammed in and busy.

Nope, not this Summer. This Summer, I vowed to slow it all down, to slow myself down and drink in the moments. that I have longed for all year.  And I must say, it has felt DELICIOUS.

This Summer, I set an intention to notice and be with deliciousness. I began to track my Summer deliciousness. I looked for – and am continuing to look for – the experiences that brought about the yummy feeling that I longed for.  I did those delicious things, consciously. And there were so, so, so many.

• the first sighting of fireflies.
• kids selling lemonade on the corner
• sunsets and sunrises
• full moon glow
• beach days
• the cat on the back stoop
• canoeing in the cedar rivers of the Pine Barrens
• kayaking on the Ocean City bay
• boardwalk pizza
• the birdsong, first thing in the am
• the crickets
• the locusts, now in late Summer
• garden veggies ripening
• seeing a beloved friend I haven’t seen in forever and sharing our lives together
• seeing my son getting taller
• rainy days on the porch
• visiting the pig farm
• not talking to anyone for five hours
• reading a novel for the first time in years
• not scheduling, intentionally
• the camp show

I could go on and on.  And, so can deliciousness. Deliciousness doesn’t need to come to an end when Summer does. We can actually build more deliciousness into our lives. We can become aware of how we want to feel, and notice the feeling of it when it arises. We can notice what we can do in our lives right now that sparks that delicious feeling. Like a tracker in the wild, we can begin to notice exactly what conjures up the feeling that we want, and then do more of that. We can practice it. We can cultivate the skill of feeling deliciousness whenever and wherever we want to.

Deliciousness is a feeling. It’s in the body, it’s in my throat and around my heart.

It feels tender and soft, almost like an ache but in an oh so pleasant way. It radiates out, like sun rays. It’s fragile. It can be easily dampened or shut out completely if we’re not noticing.

When we notice deliciousness rising , we can simply be with it for however long it lasts. And we can enjoy it in all it’s delicious splendor.

The picture above, that’s me on the bay, in a moment of  Summer deliciousness.

What is deliciousness for you? How does it feel, what brings it about?

Share one or some of your delicious moments here.

Mara

Mara Wai, M.Ed. is a mind-body coach who supports her clients to shift their consciousness and energy for healing, growth and self-transformation. With mindfulness and a variety of mind-body awareness tools, her clients deepen awareness of inherent mind and body conditioning that exacerbates their pain, prolongs suffering or is no longer resonant with what they want out of life. With gained insight and practice, her clients create new, more desirable mind-body patterns that result in greater ease in body, clarity in mind and an inherent sense of self-trust to discern what’s best for themselves and take “just-right” actions. In addition to her work as a coach, Mara is the Associate Director of the Penn Program for Mindfulness, where she oversees administration and facilitates Mindfulness-based Stress Management programs. To learn more about Mara go to www.marawai.com.