In the Heat of the Night by Nannette Croce

There's nothing like a summer night.

This time of year the sun is rising earlier each day and setting later. Some find it surprising that what we call the first day of Summer really marks the point when the days, which have been growing longer since the spring equinox, start to grow shorter. Knowing that, at this time of year, I make an extra effort to sit outside after dinner and stay out until dark.

Even in the midst of a heat wave as we were last week on the east coast, apparently stretching from North Carolina through where I live outside Philly and up to New York, the evenings, outdoors at least, usually cool to a bearable temperature. I take a book or magazine outside and read for as long as I can make out the words, but I also cast an ear to the sounds around me.

I imagine the birds, every bit as noisy as early morning, calling their babes home to bed. I know better, of course. Once the babes leave the nest, they return no more. Maybe they're just saying good night, like The Waltons used to do. "Good night, Sparrow. Good night, Chicadee. Good night, John Boy"––oops.

This last week of summer I'm caught up with a writer's workshop. Though we have outdoor activities scheduled for most evenings, with the socializing and networking, I keep forgetting to check out the sunset or listen for the birds turning in for the night.

On the 19th, the last day of spring, I will make a point of walking slowly back to my room and savor it, weather permitting. I hope you will too.

Nostalgia by Nannette Croce

Why do we idealize the past? The English language even has a specific word for it, nostalgia. To the best of my knowledge there is no similar word for appreciating the present.

TV has long provided a vast wonderland for nostalgia. When I was very young shows like The Roaring Twenties and The Untouchables were popular. The big hit in the 70s was The Waltons, starting in The Great Depression and continuing through WWII. Later that decade it was Happy Days, looking back at the 50s. Then, in the 90s we had That 70s Show, a nostalgic look back at a decade of nostalgia for the 30s and 50s.

Whether culturally or individually, the lens of hindsight brings good memories to the forefront while bad memories fade or disappear. Weren’t the 20s a time of political corruption and psychological trauma from the The War to End All Wars? Wasn’t the Depression when ruined financiers launched themselves from windows and farms out west turned to dust? The 50s were “happy days” for white middle-class American males and their children. Women and minorities fared much worse. And the 70s brought us Watergate, the evacuation of Saigon, and the Iran hostage crisis.

Inherent in nostalgia, that yearning for the past, is the feeling that we didn’t appreciate it near enough. Given the chance for a do-over, we’d enjoy the good and not exaggerate the bad.

But we don’t get do-overs. To vary the song, the present is the "good old days" of the future. Take a moment to think what moments in the present you will feel nostalgia for in the in years to come, from globally to personally. What better way to feel gratitude for what you have right now.