10 Tips for a Spiritual Summer

It's summer. It's hot. If you feel overwhelmed or stuck, it may seem like there's nowhere to turn. Houses of worship have shifted to lighter hours and offer fewer activities. Therapists and friends have that annoying way of departing on exotic, expensive vacations. But remember, in the heat, you can expand. These are spiritual months. You can tune into yourself as a living organism, absorbing the rain and sun. You can tune into your senses. And you can completely enjoy yourself in the process.

Unplug the TV

Make the break. Turn it off. Enjoy the extra psychic space and time. Fair warning: If you enforce this on your children, you'll spend more money on art supplies, bug boxes, nets, board games, and building toys. But within a week, you'll see behavior changes that will surprise you. Check out LimiTV.org for further fodder on how television distorts our world view.

Swim in Real Water

A spiritual summer calls for as much contact with a lake, river, or ocean as possible. Life begins in water. Our bodies are mostly made up of water. And relating to real water is to connect with the larger world. One of life's great pleasures is the experience of skinny-dipping with family or friends after dark in the moonlight and feeling the silky, black water caress your skin. Trust us, this is not that racy. It's a wholesome thing to do. Safety tips: www.stormfax.com/safeswim.htm

Gaze at the Night Sky

Create an unforgettable evening for your family simply by taking an old quilt to a hill on a clear night and looking up into the summer sky. There it is in all its glory, the sky that unites you to the most ancient of peoples in faraway times. You can download a free 2007 star guide at www.astrowhatsup.com/download-the-book.

Make Flying Friends

Plant a butterfly garden or set up a hummingbird feeder. Butterfly spirits will come to your garden in larger numbers if you plant a few herbs and flowering bushes that appeal to them. Feeding migrating hummingbirds when they buzz through your town (or linger year-round, as they do in California) can be one of the world's most thrilling activities. For more information on luring and feeding, go to Birdwatchers.com.

Take a Meaningful Workshop

We've found a terrific site called Find the Divine (www.findthedivine.com/states/frameRetStates.html) where you can locate virtually every religious and spiritual retreat center in existence. Or check out Beliefnet's review of some happy settings for transformational seminars featuring nationally known people teaching everything from meditation to ecstatic dance to whole foods cooking.

Walk Barefoot

Summer is a time to be more conscious of the sanctity of the earth. Going barefoot is good for you in several ways. "Your feet walk upon the Earth and through this your spirit is connected to the universe," says Cherokee "Moonmaiden" Jenny Wallace. Consult barefooters.org for information on barefoot get-togethers all over the country as well as quotes from pro-bare podiatrists.

Make or Buy Presents for Loved Ones

If you are a person of the spirit, you know that now is the time to holiday shop or create. You can think. You can select, not grab, the right gift. But making your own gift might be even better. The Church of Craft (www.churchofcraft.org) is a national community of individuals who gather to learn and create (quite a few of them knit). Forage now, collect for the coming winter, and enjoy your December.

Sit Under a Great Tree

You don't need to hug the tree--just sit and relate to it. Climb it. Meet someone you love under it. Eat a ripe fruit grown from it (another bright idea from Genesis). Suspend a hammock between two trees and climb in. Also consult the beautiful website launched by storyteller and creative arts therapist Cristy West called Spiritoftrees.org to see how trees guard the truth, console us, and dispense wisdom.

Consider Where You Are Burning Out

Light a torch in the yard or start a bonfire on the beach, and acknowledge how far you've come. Then face where you are flaming out like a flamboyant, crazy maniac. Perhaps, as Arthur Waskow suggests in "Seasons of Our Joy," the dog days provide a chance to examine where we need to regroup and gather our resources. What tasks, projects or commitments have taken all of your strength?

Read Eternally Beautiful Things

"Read a book of spiritual depth," says Rabbi David Wolpe, "and do it before a mountain, a sea, a forest, a cave, a flower, a star strewn sky." Some of the greatest, most sacred of all summer poems is William Butler Yeats' "The Song of Wandering Aengus," a poem filled with desire and knowledge of life's poignancy and expanse. Just drink it in and enjoy.

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