Summer is the time of the year when I sit back and enjoy the fruits of my prior months gardening labors of planting seeds and building up the beds and installing drip irrigation, of planting, of weeding and just let whatever happens, happen. Not only is it too hot to actively do anything but it is also the time when my daughter is home from school and the schedule in general is looser. With a puppy at home too, my schedule overall has been limited for awhile before that and so I put away my active sitting in front of the computer time and just be more present in the moment: cooking, reading, sitting with the dog, carpooling to whatever camp or activity my teen has, whatever is required in the day to day.

It is not glamorous, the weeds have certainly overtaken, but it is a conscious choice to focus on more simplicity, to allow this moment to be good enough, to just watch the bunnies in the yard as the multiply and eat the fruit from my trees, to pick the tomatoes I can before the squirrels get to them, to walk the dog, to be available when my daughter wants a listening ear, to be present in what is versus what could be achieved instead in regards to a productivity output and measurement. To allow what might look to others as visible neglect but instead a more conscious choice to focus on other things and give those things the space they need. We can’t do it all after all. If we choose everything, we choose nothing. Every action requires a sacrifice of something else. I am acutely aware of the privilege of being able to carve out a business where I can have this flexibility even if it feels difficult to manage my own needs at times with my child’s as well. This balancing act of self vs others is I know, the common parenting plight for everyone, regardless of circumstance.

I do greatly value this presence at this time in my daughter’s life though I also know it comes with a short timeframe, only a handful more years before she is off to college. This looming timeframe allows this liminal, lazy, challenging but quieter time to be more acceptable, even if it is hard to know I could be doing and accomplishing other things too. These challenging teenage years remind me of those early newborn years where life shifts and you just have to accept it, there is a tension, but also a beauty in how fragile it is.

One thing that I love doing to fill my days with more beauty and focus on the season I’m in is to create flower arrangements from the flowers that are blooming in my yard. Like my mother before me, I have a cabinet dedicated to table linens and vases and hosting supplies and I enjoy pulling out the right vase for the right arrangement, sometimes an old jam jar, sometimes something a little fancier.

In that spirit I wanted to highlight these beautiful colorful glass vases that I have recently added to the Gather Goods Co online shop. They are on the smaller side, meaning perfect for a few stems versus a larger arrangement but come in a variety of colors and shapes and are great to have on hand to make a table or just your entryway more beautiful as you walk through it each day on your way out the door.

I love how these glass vases come in such unusual shapes and feel both retro and modern at the same time.

What are your days looking like these days? What are you choosing to fill them with and what are you letting go? What small acts of intention are bringing more presence and beauty to each of these choices you are making?