Summer's a magical season

Summer is all about simple pleasure and new adventures.

Winter is more about routine and the comfort of everyday life, and spring and fall are about the transitions in life (school, weather, sports, etc.)

Summer is the season that holds the most magic as it has the potential for the most memories.

When I was a kid, we spent summers with my cousins, near the water. We were either in Vancouver, where they lived, or by a lake somewhere in B.C.

I learned to do a somersault off a dock, learned how not to waterski (make sure you let go of the rope when you fall), and I made clay and sand sculptures on the beach.

My cousins and I discovered the flattened frogs in the Kootenays the years we stayed on Kootenay Lake. When I was five years old, I saw a muskrat my first time while I was in a canoe, and a foal being born the summer we spent near Canom Lake in Cariboo Country.

Our family dog learned how to swim when she wandered off a sinking dock that summer, too.

Summers in the city were plenty of fun, too. Rollerskating and popsicle-eating were favourite pastimes. We liked those frozen tubes called Freezies – remember them? They came in a psychedelic rainbow of wonderfully unnatural colours.

Second Beach in Stanley Park was the locale for more beach days and Freezies consumed than I could ever count.

Now, I work much of summer and so my first-hand exposure to the spirit of the season is limited. On our yearly getaway this week to Perrygin Lake in Washington, I was heartened to see kids fishing for craw dads, learning how to dive off the dock, and generally make their own good time.

My hubby and I floated the Methow River (something I highly recommend, despite your hind end going numb within minutes of exposure to the glacial water). We played cornhole, also known as bean bag toss or bag-o, depending on where you come from.

We saw the kids eating "otter pops" (the current version of a Freezie). Everyone had new summer memories to take home.

I am fortunate to work in situations where I see that the spirit of summer lives on. We cater pool parties full of silly antics, and family reunions with simple (non-video) games anyone can win.  But I must admit it's nice to know I can still perform a respectable cannonball off a dock and roast a mean marshmallow over the campfire (even if it's propane-fueled).

There is much to be gained in retaining the spirit of childhood in the summer sun.

Please, have a s'more, dive off that dock, or at least cheer on the little people you know. If it doesn't make you remember the secret of life, try it one more time.

You'll see what I mean. 

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.