Summer 2020; A Season Of Wisdom

Summary

The author reflects on a unique summer of personal growth, health improvements, and family bonding amidst the challenges of quarantine life.

Abstract

The summer of 2020 is characterized by the author as a period of introspection and adaptation due to the quarantine. It led to a deeper appreciation for family, as time spent with them increased significantly. The author also achieved significant weight loss and health improvements through consistent healthy eating and exercise. Despite the lack of beach visits, the summer was marked by a sense of wisdom gained from facing life's realities, managing emotions, and maintaining a strong publishing career amidst the global pandemic.

Opinions

The author views the quarantine as an opportunity for reflection on personal and global issues.
There is an acceptance of new norms, such as heightened awareness of hygiene and social distancing.
The author values mindfulness and has developed a stronger appreciation for family relationships.
A personal struggle with fear of losing loved ones without reconciliation is acknowledged, with the summer providing time to strengthen relationships.
The author is proud of the weight loss journey and the associated health benefits, including improved blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, and mental health.
There is a preference for cooler weather over the hot, humid summers of New Jersey, with the author welcoming the exercise opportunity that comes with shoveling snow.
The author expresses a passion for gardening, which is seasonally limited by the cold weather.
Despite some regrets, such as not visiting the beach, the author considers themselves wiser and is grateful for the support from readers and publishers in their writing career.

Summer 2020; A Season Of Wisdom

While summertime might not be officially over yet, its ending does feel in sight, just like it usually does when the month of September arrives. It has sparked some reflecting in my mind, as I always seem to mentally summarize how my summer was when we reach this month. I consider all the things that I enjoyed about the season, all the things I didn’t do, that I skipped, and regret not being able to do. As well as trying to review some good memories over the course of the past three months.

The quarantine life has certainly made for a quite different summer for starters. It gave for a much different setting, then any summer that I can certainly remember in several years. To pinpoint just a few reasons or examples isn’t quite easy though. But for starters. I noticed that it was a better time than ever for reflecting on so many life issues out in the world, as well as continuous pondering over my own life, and the ways I see myself going within this world.

I feel like I came to terms with many realities in life. Not to mean that each of those terms involved very serious stuff. It was more of a process of coming to terms with things in general, whether big things or small.

I accepted things into my life as the new norms, like having plenty of hand sanitizer around, being much more mindful of germs, and being sure I move six feet to the side when I’m walking by somebody. Inside and outside.

I am definitely sure that I spent more time among my family members than ever before. And the least amount of time among my closest friends. Which is certainly the only time that has happened since I was a young teenager. However, I am not complaining, because I practiced a lot of mindfulness in this scenario, and made sure I grew a strong, and somewhat new appreciation for my family members.

It helped strengthen one emotional issue that I still struggle with. That being, I always get stuck in my head, with a type of fear that I am going to lose people someday in my life, without leaving on good terms. I guess that relates back to my oldest struggles, which are guilt, shame, and regret. That type of struggle worked out well though because I can look back over the summer and know that I spent good quality time with good relationships.

One of my favorite bits of positive progress has been the journey of weight loss. One that I spent the past 100 days in a row, working diligently on.

Between healthy eating and daily exercising, I was able to lose 31 pounds, since memorial day so far. With no planning for cheat days until my Christmas vacation. My end goal, while still far away, is still a light at the end of a long tunnel. With those changes, there have come many other areas of improved health, whether it be things like blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, and even better mental health than before.

The end of summer is certainly not the end in general. There are good vibes of mine, that I can see on the horizon now that summer is ending. For instance, while I do love things like the beach in the summer, that doesn’t mean that I enjoy hot weather. And here in New Jersey, it’s a soupy, moist, and thick kind of life. We don’t necessarily rate uncomfortableness by high temperatures, as much as we do humidity, and even worst, dew point. Those two, are phenomenons that take sweating to a whole crazier level.

While I do love air conditioning as much as the next sweaty guy, I really do prefer a much cooler climate, and you’ll never hear me complain about a nice deep frost to harden the grass like it’s astroturf. And give me a blizzard or two any day of the week. Now that I’m into exercising, I am more than willing to shovel the heaviest snow that mother nature can give me.

The only downfall to that frigid lifestyle is it throws gardening right out of the picture. I do tend to many different plants and gardens throughout the spring and summer, which include not only dozens of different flowers but a handful of vegetables as well.

All in all, I can confidently say that I am a wiser man now than I was back in May. While I regret not making it to the beach at all, I can say that I regained quality health thanks to a summer of hard work, diligence, and good willpower.

I took the good with the bad, and I continued to keep up as not only an Author but a Publisher and Editor as well. With well over 600 publications under my belt, my writing is continuing to progress strongly, like a bullet train speeding through town. I remain so blessed and thankful that readers and publishers are strongly backing me every single day.

MICHAEL PATANELLA