One of the secret reasons why summer is a welcome time of the year is because as temperatures start to gradually rise, so do our spirits! After all, who doesn’t feel better after a day by cooling waters, a late-afternoon walk, or spending a balmy night on a deck with family and friends? But, there’s more to summer than its simple pleasures. As we’re about to discover, this season is full of secret powers that, once understood, are guaranteed to help us let go and grow!
On the summer solstice—June 21 [in the Northern hemisphere]—the earth is bathed in the greatest amount of sunlight possible and with all this radiant energy comes a period of peak activity experienced everywhere in nature.
In the trees, life-supporting sap flows more freely than any other time of the year. Leaves burgeon and swell; countless individual branches reach for the sun, even as root systems dive deeper into the earth. Creatures everywhere are searching for—and consuming—the vital foods they need to nourish the explosion of growth taking place within them.
Summer fruits start transforming the substance of their own flesh into sweet sugars, dressing themselves in rich colors that proclaim they are ripe and ready to eat. Fields of grains and grasses reach maturity; their stalks, waving in the late-afternoon winds, are teased into dropping countless seeds.
Summer is the time of natural abundance. These are the days of a great conversion: the whole of life flourishes, fulfills, and feeds itself at once. We see before us the immeasurable power of plentitude. But what do we stand to gain for realizing the strength of this season?
When we know that nothing can be added to something to make it greater than it is—when the present moment of life is as full as life permits—then we should also be able to see the following truth: anything that appears within us—that would try and tempt us into searching for our contentment in some brighter tomorrow to come—must itself live outside the fullness of the now. And whatever lives outside the true power that beats the heart of the present moment is powerless to do anything—let alone deliver us into a state of being whole. In the bright light of summer, we are empowered to detect and drop the only thing that ever defeats us: being identified with the false self that wants us to feel discontent with what life gives to us.
With these last few thoughts in mind, summer is a good time for letting go of any fearful concern we may have over uncertain days that lie ahead of us. Any part of our false self that wants to feel troubled over its own darkly imagined tomorrow should be tossed high into the air—winnowed like summer wheat so the chaff of fear blows away—leaving behind only the precious kernel of contentment with what we are being given in the here and now.
This season of growth is also the perfect time to detect and dismiss any parts of us that tell us we can’t outgrow what may have compromised us in days past. It is the time to discover that this higher ground we seek more than just awaits us; it is actually reaching out to meet us half way, if we will only take the necessary steps in our journey of letting go.
Summer is also a secret time of sacrifice; it marks nature’s perpetual passage from one form into another. Again, the evidence is everywhere: flowers shed their petals to reveal the baby fruits hidden in their buds, even as other maturing fruits ripen to reach maximum sweetness, only to fall to the ground as food for those who find these seasonal gifts.
Letting go takes place naturally as we grow to see that whatever we will release of ourselves is returned to us, only transformed into something greater than what we thought we gave away.
Whenever we will actively surrender ourselves to God, to the Life Divine, then we aren’t just relieved of nagging worries, fears, and doubts; these lower estates of consciousness are replaced with higher ones. For our sacrifice we are given a whole new self that lives in a world of light where dark states cannot dwell.
If you want to know more about the the principles that Guy teaches at his non-profit Life of Learning Foundation, go to linktr.ee/GuyFinley. He offers free online classes on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. Hope you can join him!
