Reflection Time: Summer 2023!
It is now late August, so it is time to reflect on the Summer of 2023. It has been good for me. Most mornings, I spent an hour at the lakefront (Lake Michigan, that is) soaking up the sun and getting that Vitamin D for great healing. I sat, wrote, and did Yoga stretches and people-watched as they strolled by, walked their dogs to the doggy park or enjoyed activities out on the water itself.
I read multiple books that I obtained from purchases, library visits or pulled ones from our mini-residential freestanding library situated on our block. What a treasure! I saw one of my books on display at the local library and that certainly was a summer highlight! Thus, many of the books’ settings were places here in the States and some were in faraway places which made me quite curious. So, that led me to another high adventure for the summer.
I took several trips through vlogs. Yes, that’s right. Vlogs meaning video-blogs. It’s a new thing and a way that travelers share their trips through videos, pictures and commentaries, often set to calming music as viewers travel along. Yes, for free! No airports, no flight cancellations, no lost baggage, no scary flights, no fights on the plane. Just push play and join along from a safe distance.
From my readings, I went to Stockholm, Sweden; Marathousa and Kalamata in Greece and on to Zurich, Switzerland for starters. I continued my lengthy travels by going to Martha’s Vineyard, Provincetown, Nantucket, the Mackinac Island and Puget Sound in the States. I boarded the Euro Train in the UK after visiting Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare’s birthplace) and traveled over to France. There, I went down to Provence, Saint Paul de Vence (Author James Baldwin’s home abroad) and on over to Lisbon, Portugal, Belgium’s top cities, Rotterdam (The Netherlands) and up the Isle of Wight. I even went inside of Queen Victoria’s summer castle, The Osborne House, on the isle to experience what life was like for her, Prince Albert and their children.
I took breathers and went over to Germany, where my mother visited twice to Frankfurt and I went on to Hamburg. I even traveled with a black American family in Italy’s Positano area and took a train ride with an Aussie family leaving Italy and going into Switzerland. I took a look around Copenhagen, Denmark, a place my father wanted to see. Certainly, I am leaving something out but after the Maui fires, I took a look at Lahaina before the fires and went over to Oahu’s Honolulu to see Washington Place and the Iolani Palace, the residences of the last two monarchs of Hawaii.
In person, I went into Chicago to see the Chicago Tap Theatre perform on the north side of the city. As a child tap dancer, it was simply awesome to watch these highly energetic dancers do their thing. And I met a former colleague and we chatted and dined at Shang Noodle & Chinese in downtown Evanston after his exciting visit to South Korea, his birthplace. He shared his many pictures and took me on a vicarious trip there!
But what would any of that matter without the music? It is the backdrop of our daily lives so I sang, crooned and danced to the genius of artists like Dionne Warwick (old and new), Tina Turner (a great loss), Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass, Willie Nelson, The Eagles, David Garrett, The Backstreet Boys, Queen, Kenny Rogers and so many others. The Bee Gees had me up dancing as did Bruno Mars with his rendition of Love Train. He even had me cracking up as I shared his Smoking Out the Window and Love Train with a friend from my disco days. She laughed and said that his Love Train had she and her husband of 44 years trying out their senior moves on the dance floor.
As I thumbed through the political arena and watched poor Mother Earth burn, flood, quake and shiver from the winds, the books, the travel vlogs and the music helped get me into summer’s final stretch. I even found a comical version of the viral Montgomery Brawl as I remembered that laughter is always a strong medicine. A thrifty, cost-effective summer has been both enriching and fulfilling. As Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions sang in People Get Ready, “Don’t need no baggage, you just get on board.” And I am the wiser for it!
Lynn M. Dixon
August 26, 2023
