Eternal Summer
A few moons ago, I was fortunate enough to live with two young lovers in Barcelona. She was Spanish, he Australian. After meeting in a brief chance encounter, the pair had found soul mates in each other, albeit, at opposite ends of the earth.
Together we spent many boozy, balmy nights in a haze of sangria, paella and flamenco music, basking amidst white washed buildings for days that went forever. Eating, drinking and skylarking by the ocean, I recall thinking that these were the moments that mattered in the midst of all our living.
I remember in their bedroom there was a poster, an image of two people driving off into the sunset in an old Mustang. “Eternal Summer” was in yellow script across the top. They’d cut out a photo of themselves and pasted it over the couple already in the photo. For them, love felt like an Eternal Summer.
For me, Summer is; feeling the briny sunshine on your face, kissing salty skin, the sand between your toes, in your shoes, in your sheets, in your crotch. Driving with the windows down and the music loud; rain on a steaming pavement, the sound of crickets, the smell of sunscreen, coconut, chlorine and a freshly mowed lawn. Your first callipo; floating too far out to sea. The breathlessness of being thrown by a wave. Seeing the sky, finding your feet again. A ceiling fan to cool your sunburn. Long hot days in the school demountables; going back to your friends house for swims.
The only thing I don’t like about Summer is that it always leaves too soon…
Embrace it while you can, hold on to all of your memories, make new ones, and remember; that in the darkness of Winter, therein lies, in each of us, an Eternal Summer.
