“Summer-time – and the living is easy” – so begins a very old song with a gently swinging tune.
For many people, summer does bring an easier time: no heating needed in the home; long, light days in which to go out and enjoy the parks or countryside; gentle nights; trees (even the late-leafing oak) in full green, and gardens in full flower.
But for many, no time of the year is ever easy.
Problems abound for those struggling to make ends meet, or who have ongoing health problems; folk worry about their children or elderly family members – and these go on year in, year out.
Shakespeare – as he so often did – put his finger on it: “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, and often is his gold complexion dimmed …”
No, we do not live in a perfect world, and the daily news gives us no help, with its constant repetition of stories of wars and conflicts; wildfires in one part of the world, floods in another; droughts and crop failures and the economic problems of many people in many places.
Having made ourselves thoroughly miserable by thinking of all this, what can we do to cheer ourselves up?
“Count your blessings, name them one by one,” is another song we probably learnt as children.
And if we begin to do that, we may find ourselves truly surprised “at what the Lord has done”. And indeed, continues to do.
Help is available for all those in need – if you look; people are often more than willing to help friends and neighbours, and above all, there is a God who loves and cares for the world He made, and all creatures, great and small, who call it home.
Rosi MorganBarry from Wokingham Methodist Church, writing on behalf of Churches Together in Wokingham