AS FAR as I can remember, summer has always been magical as it is the favorite time for discoveries and play for everyone.
Nowadays most of the time, we spend our summer at home watching television, playing video games, chatting with friends online on Facebook or just going to the mall cooling off.
Most of our children find it too hot to play outside. Maybe climate change is a bigger factor these days. There are too many people on the streets and that raises safety issues. There are hardly any open spaces to go camping, kite flying or run in wild abandon with one’s dog. There are no more clean creeks or rivers to soak in on a hot summer day. Kids also seem to have lost interest in climbing trees.
In order to have fun and creative bonding during summer, kids pursue activities offered in malls like dancing, theater, singing, painting and Taekwondo. And if the family can afford it, they travel around the country or go abroad to Disneyland.
Usually, many of us spend summer outing at the mall with dad, mom, grandpa, grandma, siblings and extended families eating at the restaurants, watch movies, go swimming in the swimming pool or an overnight stay in a resort hotel.
But regardless of how different we spend summer nowadays, the bottom line is still true that we hold our families closest to our hearts. We always enjoy entertainments which strengthen our family togetherness.
Families need to release tension by forgetting themselves and indulging in loud laughter. Who can resist a baby’s gurgle of laughter when she/he sees dad or mom come home? Stress from work, fatigue can be erased by a good laugh. Spontaneous laughter always brings more laughter from other people.
Laughter does wipe our stresses away in a fast-paced, stress-filled world. This is a fact of life and our bodies were never designed to handle all kinds of stress. Just take time to observe over-stressed people. They talk and act as if they are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. The simple solution to this problem is to let God do His job. As Psalm 55:22 says “Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you.”
Especially this summer during our family bonding, we remember that our life is a journey to be enjoyed each step at the way. Some of us forget to relax already, to experience calmness and peace of mind, too.
Email: dr.nirmla_motoomull@yahoo.com