Missing summer

One of the hardest things about going to Bolivia every year is that I end up missing a good chunk of summer. Bolivia, of course, being in the southern hemisphere, has winter while we in the north have summer.

Missing summer has its positives and negatives. On the plus side, I miss the intense, wet heat of July. The taste of it I get in June is enough to remind me how much I hate humidity, the way it makes my shirt stick to my back, and makes me glad that I get to escape it on June 30. Winter weather in Cochabamba is crisp and dry, with a nice cool tang to the evening air, even as the days are warm and temperate. Give me cool and dry over hot and humid any day.

The down side is that I miss the best of summer. I miss the swimming, the lazy days, the ice cream and the bike rides. I miss my kids as they do summery things. Summer brings back the sense of my own childhood, spent by the lake in upstate New York, and not being part of summer on an annual basis makes me ache for lost youth.

In the end, though, it all works out. Missing the heart of summer means I appreciate all the more the time I have to enjoy it in June and late August. Welcome the time we are given, make the most of the time we have got.