MedTees.com - From the Shrink's Desk

Summertime, and even if the livin’ is not easy – at least it’s slower. There seems to be more time for reflection and thinking back. More time to be outside – where the warm weather nourishes the soul. In July, I await the beginning of the cicadas, enjoy my garden before the serious heat hits, and enjoy a bit of a respite. I hope you are too.

A local coffee shop in a busy commercial district took the unusual step of hiring a string trio to play outside on a hot Saturday afternoon. The street scene there is usually rushed and mundane, with people charging out of the drycleaner, bank or hardware store; off to the next errand. But today, there was also the timeless sound of beautiful live classical music filling the air around the concrete and cars and telephone poles. As I sat to listen, I noticed a lonely, hunched old woman tentatively sit at the edge if the crowd. Some Hispanic youths opened their third floor brownstone window and sat on the ledge to listen. A family slowed down on bikes. A woman drove by slowly, craning her neck out the window – her face filled with unexpected longing. The Korean drycleaner came out of his shop. As the music continued something shifted. People that had existed in separate universes suddenly all seemed connected. Ordinary people somehow looked different to each other. People smiled shyly at each other and seemed comforted. The street scene was suffused with beauty – perhaps beauty that had existed there all along.

I am hoping that you can find something this summer that connects you with this kind of truth – maybe it is music, or art, or poetry, or simply watching your grandchildren. Life goes on apace and the dailies can grind us way down. Beauty is like oxygen. It is not a luxury. It reminds us that there is more than what is immediately apparent. James Taylor has a song titled, “Look up from your life”. Here’s to more of those moments for all of us.