Jessie:
in Maine, by the seaside
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the need to have more fun. I’ve spent the summer in a beach town and the sound of fun rolls up the hill from the shoreline and splashes all over my desk. I’ve been trying my best to ignore it as I head determinedly towards a September 1 deadline. But, most days, hearing the waves thundering and the sound of beach cart wheels trundling over the pavement in front of my house breaks my concentration and sends me to the front porch to sniff the salty air and envy the neighbors more times than is productive.
I hear myself admonishing my children to go out and play, to enjoy the nice weather while there is still time. In New England there is always that pressing feeling that a beautiful day is a like a surprise gift from an elderly aunt and who knows if she’ll ever do it again. I feel like a child myself as try to convince myself that I can work in the evening. What I’ve ended up doing is bribing myself and working around the tides. 
My favorite way to have summer fun is to go to the beach. I don’t always wish to swim but I want to see the water, to smell the air. I prefer to go near low tide so I check the tide chart and see when I would most like to be on the sand. Then I tell myself I can go join all the merry-makers if I have a certain number of scenes revised or a target number of words written by the time the tide is right. With that kind of incentive most days I meet my goal. Barring catastrophe, I never miss it two days in a row.
Have you had enough fun this summer? How do you go out and play?
I live ten miles from the beach and love it, but haven’t gotten there enough this year. Fun is some perfect ears of steamed corn, a gin and tonic, and reading a mystery on my deck. Going for a swim in a New Hampshire lake. And getting to the beach a few more times before fall!
Going swimming nothing says fun to me like plunging into a pool! I love to float on my back and watch the clouds move past!