Summer’s Loving Sting: The Heat, Garden Fragrances, and Dirty Hands

July 30, 2019

“Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.”

So said Russell Baker, capturing with a wink the season’s strange alchemy — the way summer’s heat and labor somehow become a beloved, if taxing, companion.

For those of us with dirt under our nails and the scent of garden blooms thick in the warm air, this line rings true.

As Bev Adams beautifully expresses,

“Dirty hands, iced tea, garden fragrances thick in the air and a blanket of color before me.
Who could ask for more?”

Adams’ words evoke the full sensory tapestry of summer gardening: the satisfying toil, the refreshing pause with a cool drink, and the colorful feast laid out by nature’s hand.

There is joy even in the sweat, a rich reward in the work itself.

Together, these voices remind us that summer is both a challenge and a celebration. It tests our endurance with sun and sweat, but also offers the profound pleasure of life at its fullest.

The dust on our hands is proof of connection to the earth; the intensity of the season sharpens our appreciation of beauty and bounty.

So while summer may demand our labor and patience, it also teaches us to savor the simple, the vibrant, and the tangible — the iced tea cooling on the porch, the heady perfume of blossoms on the breeze, and the blanket of color unfolding before our very eyes.

For all its power to make us suffer, summer makes us fall in love with the living world anew.