Episode 185 - 3 Ways To Savor The Lushness of Late Summer
There’s a secret season nestled between June’s thrush and autumn’s hush.
The golden, generous, ripe time of late summer.
Before the warty gourds and rich pumpkins arrive at the farmer’s market, heirloom tomatoes take their final bow and dahlias drip with color in a sun-drenched encore.
Using heartful rituals, sensory pleasures, and the power of the pause, today’s episode will take you on a journey of:
🌾 The energetic and emotional qualities of late summer
🍑 Why this time of year can feel both deliciously abundant and strangely bittersweet
🕯️ Pleasure rituals to help you savor the sweetness of the season through your senses and your spirit
🌿 How to align and reconnect with your seasonal nature to make life more easeful, flowing, and deeply attuned
Think of this episode as a warm cup of tea on a sun-dappled porch.
Mary
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Ep 185. The Simple Pleasures of Late Summer
Hello beautiful and welcome to the Come to Your Senses podcast. I'm your host, award winning certified feminine embodiment coach, licensed esthetician, and enthusiastic foster dog mama to animals across the land. Mary Lofgren Here we explore how to bring more richness, radiance, peace, and pleasure to our lives, homes and hearts through the joy of beauty, the wisdom of the body, the warmth of connection, and the splendor of the senses. I'm so glad you're here. Pull up a pouf and let's dive in. Hello, beautiful beings, and welcome to today's episode, which is all about the distinct pleasures of late summer. So here in the Northern Hemisphere, we are splashing into the first days of August, and summer is a season that has two faces. There is the start of summer end of May early June, where we are gearing up for the summer solstice. It's a time in the Earth's turning, where the sun reaches the peak of its power, and where the days are long and filled with light and late summer. You know, in the more pagan Wiccan tradition, the religion of nature. August 1st is a holy day called Lammas, and it's a time of the first pickings of the harvest. So a time of year where we typically associate with harvest is late September October. Pumpkins, squash apples. The earth is just exploding with ripeness. And August is when we first start to see the mere hint of a change of season, and where August has this extraordinary ripening, and is a beautiful time for rituals of nourishment and gratitude, relaxing into the sumptuous ness of these final, syrupy days of summer. And also allowing our bodies to prepare for the change of season. As the Earth begins its slow, subtle transition towards the golden glow of autumn. And so today we are going to explore and expand upon some of the distinct pleasures of late summer. And today's episode was inspired by A Seasonal Guide to Summer that I wrote last week for the sanctuary members. And you know, in the sanctuary, the seasons really guide our experience. And the reason for that is because our bodies are in nature. And in the sanctuary. It's really the study of cultivating everyday presence from a body based approach. And just what I've been noticing in my own life, as I've been looking at and exploring and deepening my study of the seasons, is how much more relaxed I feel around change. You know? And when things come up and life gets hairy, as it always does, it's like, oh well. This is going to change someday because that's what life is. And so why don't we just experience it fully? And so my hope is that today's episode not only inspires you to get your hands and your taste buds and your eyes and your ears synced up with the pleasures of late summer, but that it also inspires a cellular remembrance of the ever turning wheel of time. And that every winter leads to spring. Every spring leads to the height of summer. Every summer leads to the ripening of fall, and every fall leads to the letting go of winter. And on and on and on again. And so, wherever you happen to find yourself in your life at this moment, the seasons can be such a powerful spiritual tool for mirroring that ever expanding spiral of change. And so we'll begin today with a quote from C.S. Lewis. Summer has filled her veins with light and her heart is washed with noon. Are. Swoon. Daddy. Swoon. Swoon. Swim. Some of the ways that late summer expresses itself. Some of our most common symbolism around late summer is obviously the sun. So this is a time of still longer days. Our days are slowly beginning to shorten a bit in terms of the availability of light, but there's still that drippy, honey soaked golden hour light that lengthens late into the evening. August. I think of August. And I see like golden light dripping down a mountain or a horizon. You know, there's this kind of just golden energy in the air. And so if June is Sweet Valley twins and the focus is on expansion and shining and brightness. August to me is kind of like Anne of Green Gables. It's like there's more simplicity and more connection to what's real and connection to the earth and to using our hands. And if Sweet Valley Twins is more like a neon visor in June, August is more like a gingham apron. This is just how my brain works, and the way that my particular set of spiritual goggles are affixed on my face when it comes to the seasons. And so as we transitioned into our gems. What I want to share with you are some ways to celebrate and to soak up these pleasures of late summer. And we will start with one of my favorites, which is food. Oh my God. So many delicious foods right now. Golden ripe heirloom tomatoes. Fragrant basil that follows you in its aroma on the air as you walk through the farmer's market. Crisp garden greens, bursting dahlias and wild flowers at the farmer's market. As we know, the summertime is a prime time for berries, and this is a great time to stock up on those juicy, ripe late summer berries and freeze them. I grew up in upstate New York, where there's a lot of farms, and one of our favorite summer traditions was going to this particular farm in my town and picking blueberries until our fingernails were stained for weeks and picking strawberries and raspberries. And you know, this is a great time to bake a pie. I am not really a pie baker, but a friend of mine. Her birthday is coming up, and I know her favorite pie, so I'm going to try my hand at a nice summer pie I actually might make. Pies can be a little intimidating, but I might make a little mini pie tart. Let's, you know, I'm really excited about it. And you know, food is such a powerful way to get our hands off of our phones and into the creativity of touching ripe summer fruit and rolling out pastry doughs. So just some of the ways that you can layer summer fruit into your life beyond just snacking. I love using summer fruit to make homemade popsicles. I mean berries and cream, pineapple and coconut milk, chocolate and fresh raspberries. The possibilities are limitless. And this is also a time where you know I don't personally own a grill. Never have. But I know a lot of people do. And alfresco dining my friends, this is a time ripe for alfresco dining because the evenings are a little bit cooler. You might grab a wrap or throw to have a little grilled veggies. Grilled fish. Summer salad delight. Out on the porch. Finished with some fresh berries and cream. Or just cook those berries up on the stove and drizzle them over some ice cream. I mean, come on. So much pleasure to be had. And another distinct pleasure of this time of year is the pleasure of slowing down to gather and collect the gems of the season past. So again, in June, it's like we're out there. We're out at the beach where in that kind of high summer solstice energy, and now we are starting to slowly whined the season down. We're moving toward September, where the kiddos go back to school, where this time of rest and recreation is starting to draw to a close. And so a really powerful ritual that you can do to honor this season on the outer and on the inner is spending a bit more time in savoring. So I use the word savoring. You might use the word gratitude or appreciation or reflection, but one of the suggestions for this time of year in again, the seasonal tradition, is to make this a time of year where you write a letter of thanks to the earth, to the season, a list of gratitude that you place on your altar. And I love this practice because again, you know my modern mind, our modern minds. Are synced up with a season of perpetual harvest, right? Like, our energy is expected to be consistent and sustained throughout every day. And this is often why, you know, we might say, oh, God, I can't believe it's already August. Where did the summer go? And then the same chorus repeats at the holidays, at springtime, you know, and a way to just slow time down is to stop and look around and see what is blooming, what might need to be pruned, what is ripe and ready to be plucked and savored and tasted. What gifts have you received from the earth this summer? And I just got back from a weekend away with some of my oldest, dearest friends who are like family, and just some of the memories that stick out are walking along a trail with two of my besties of like 25 years and chatting and covering everything from AI to gender politics to, you know, all these different range of topics. And my one friend plucking a berry and my other friend educating him on poisonous berries and walking out onto this wooden landing and taking photographs and posing and oh my gosh, just so much fun. That was one moment, you know, there were so many moments from that weekend. There's so many moments of beauty. This is my first year. I'm coming up on a year of living in California and beach outings with my housemate and dates I've been on. I mean, just talking about this, I'm like, good heavens, there has been so much abundance and I just feel that part. This is what happens every time I feel that part that is eternally clawing for more and eternally trying to get ahead, whatever the hell that means. Because any place we're trying to get the ultimate destination is always presence. You know, whether you want to have more money or have a dream come true, have a family, have a showing at an art gallery. It's like what we really want is the taste of being fully alive in our lives. And while those experiences can absolutely drop us into that. That clawing sensation the way, in my experience, that that lessens and loosens its grip is through looking around and looking away from that capitalist industrial revolution embedded microchip that is always trying to get more, have more, be more, get ahead. And instead, drawing our attention to all of the beauty and all that we have already cultivated and the fullness that is already here right now, as the fertile soil in which to grow those seats of future desire. And the month of August and late summer is a particularly ripe, harmonious time to do a ritual like that. And the final gem for soaking up the pleasures of late summer is the art of the lounge. I'm working on an episode right now called The Lost Art of lounging and all these gems that I can bring you about how to bring more of that energy of real, full body relaxation into your life. You know, so many of us are now accustomed to this need for electronics to down regulate and to downshift, but that doesn't necessarily put our body into relaxation. It just puts our body into more of a state of numbness and kind of foggy. And in late summer, my heavens, there are so many ways to luxuriate and lounge, and I'm watching a butterfly fly across my window as we speak. I'm thinking of a novel that I just got that I. If I had a hammock, I would be swinging the day away in that hammock. But you know, having breakfast outside in the morning, summer sun, reading a novel. Lounging at the end of the day to soak up the warmth as it radiates from the earth and warms you from the sky like your own personal little sauna. Acts of beauty that use your hands like taking some of those farmer's market wildflowers or summer roses. Drying them on a windowsill. Very Anne of Green Gables, taking an afternoon pleasure break with large slices of heirloom tomatoes, with flaky sea salt and a little olive oil drizzled on top. Maybe some fresh basil. Maybe a wedge of parmesan. Mm. So many ways to lounge and to soak up the pleasures of this season. And that brings today's basket of gems and treasures to a close. Thank you so much for listening, and I will see you in our next episode. For more gems on how to celebrate life through the richness of your senses, head to Mary Lofgren. Com there you'll find an abundant library of free gems and resources. You can check out my award winning coaching programs, or flirt with stepping through the garden gates of the sanctuary community. Come and learn how to make beauty, presence, and everyday luxury a lifestyle at Mary Lofgren. Com.