Summer Manifesto: Just Do It

A couple of weekends ago, we were heading to our friend's camp ("camp" being Maineglish for "house/cabin/cottage on a lake") for the day when E said, can we stop at that stone house?

What he was talking about was the Jefferson Cattle Pound, a large circular structure made up completely of dry stone walls (meaning, no mortar holding them together).

We have driven by the Pound approximately a gazillion times a summer for the last ten years, and though we always say or think to ourselves, "we should stop there some day," we never have.

We're always in too much of a hurry to get to the lake and enjoy the sun, or we're in too much of ahurry to get home and make dinner and put kids to bed.

But this time I figured, why not? Seize the day. So we stopped.

And we ran around inside where once (almost 200 years ago) cattle roamed, or were herded, or hung out awaiting slaughter or auction. I'm not sure what a cattle pound is for exactly, but we thought it was a mighty fine place to run around in circles.

And then we got in the car and headed to the lake.

It took all of five minutes, including me accidentally driving past it and turning around in the next driveway.

So this is our philosophy for the summer: Carpe Diem! There's no time like the present! Quit talkin' about it and do it already!

Stop at that farm stand/ice cream stand/antique shop you've always been meaning to stop at.

Go to that place you've always been meaning to go.

Read that book that's been gathering dust on your shelves.

Make that project you've been meaning to make.

Summer's here. Slow down. Put on the brakes. Turn around at the next driveway and just do it.

*"Summer Manifesto" borrowed (and paraphrased) from Meryl at My Bit of Earth
**"Just Do It" borrowed from some footwear company...can't remember the name exactly right now.