Summer is a season of brief delights. Tiny beings on gossamer wings cloud the air for fleeting moments. Meadows undulate in an abrupt dazzle of colour. Birds swoop in from their long journeys to a frenzy of feasting and breeding. It is a season where things appear like magic, before vanishing as though they were never there. Where do they come from – the flies and the beetles and the butterflies? Where do they go to when their season has ended? They appear and then they fade, leaving behind traces on the air and the memory of wings. Summer’s long, light days can seem tantalisingly slow, and many of us remember treacly summers of our youth that were never-ending. But summer’s delights are ephemeral and the season rarely seems to linger in the way the dark, raw days of winter do.
In the long, slow turn of the seasons, I see the pattern of a writer’s life. A cycle of hope and despair, of tunnelling inwards to find a nugget of wisdom and reluctantly re-emerging to display it to the world. But if the writing life is a long game, then summer is those brief, dazzling moments of success. It is the moment when you write ‘the end‘; the competition prize or commendation; the moment when you see your words in print; the pleasing comment or review. For most of us it isn’t a best-selling novel or Pulitzer Prize, it is a series of brief delights, that dazzle us temporarily, before we head once more into the doubt doldrums or the hard work of putting one word after another. Sometimes these dazzling moments seem far apart, like midwinter yearning for spring.
Summer is a season of expansiveness. A time to use the long hours of light and warmth to replenish us for the winter ahead. In this season, I feel the hope of sending my work out into the world. The stories jostling for a home will find one; the manuscript waiting for an agent won’t be discarded. That hope and what it may bring sustains me as a writer, just as the memory of summer comforts me when the light is low and the cold chatters my bones.
Of course summer’s brief delights don’t appear from nowhere, and nor do those of a writer’s life. They are the result of months, even years, of preparation. The larvae creeping through the mud, waiting for wings. The seed incubating in the earth, waiting for petals. The story percolating in the mind, waiting for its words. Their magic is that of toil and transformation. So it is no wonder there is delight when they finally emerge. No wonder summer has a frivolity lacking in all the other seasons. It is a time to bask in these transient delights. We will bid them farewell soon enough and move towards the bittersweet dark. And as we do, perhaps we will cast a wistful look behind us and remember the dazzle of the light.
Many thanks to James Clark for recommending this post to WordPress Discover. James is very generous in highlighting the work of other bloggers, why not pay him a visit at https://jamesclarkthenextiteration.wordpress.com
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WOW! And i don’t just mean the piece. I meam Wow! on being mentioned in WordPress Discover AGAIN!
Good for you! Your writing xeesves all the recognition it’s getting.
Congratulations!
Again!
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Oops. The joys of working on a mobile device… My finger bumped the “send” button before I had a chance to fix the “xeesves” typo into the intended “deserves”.
Oh well. It makes for good reiteration. And your writing does deserve as broad of an audience and as many republishings as it can get.
Congrats.
Again. 🙂
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I didn’t know I had been James…but thank you!
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Yep. It just popped up a couple of hours ago. This time by Cheri Lucas Rowlands instead of Krista Stevens.
What are you going to do with all this attention? 🙂
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Well, as it happens I was thinking about having a ‘harvest festival’ in a little while, as I did a few years ago on the blog, so this might be a good opportunity for all those new blog friends to introduce themselves…
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Sounds like a cool idea.
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As always, reading your work is like walking across the tops of clouds. Beautiful.
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A beautiful description, thank you Gwen!
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I love the natural world and I love your metaphor for the writing process. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this! Thank you.
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Thanks for reading and for your comment 🙂
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Creating magic with your word !! Pictures are awesome too 🙂
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Thank you!
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You write very poetically, and I love the pictures.
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Thank you.
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The pictures of the butterfly, bumble bee and flowers are beautiful!
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Thank you.
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You really captured the essence of the writer’s life!
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Thanks, I’m glad you thought so.
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Hi Andrea,
I nominated you for a Mystery Blogger Award! This is in no way obligatory. But I just thought it was a way to tell you how much I like your blog.
“Mystery Blogger Award” is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging; and they do it with so much love and passion. Okoto Enigma
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Thanks so much Smitha, I appreciate the thought.
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Agree a summery introduction and then the link to the seasons for a writer. Really insightful and works well, with summer a short dazzle of sunshine and especially if in the U.K.!
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Thank you.
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Beautiful pics to start off with and great writing to capture that essence.
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Thank you.
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Andrea, Great piece. The opening paragraph was wonderful and ties in a bit with what I’m going to write about in my next article. Would you mind if I quoted you and provided a link to your site? Thanks so much, Dave
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Thank you Dave and yes, that’s fine.
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Would also like to quote a sentence or 2 from “Wings.”
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No problem Dave.
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Hi Andrea, My latest blog is up and your work is featured. Here’s the link: http://birdpartner.com/2019/09/08/nearing-seasons-end/. Thanks again. Love your writing. Dave
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Thank you Dave, I appreciate your words and I will be by to read it.
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Oops. “Winged.”
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