Summer: Raw and Abstract

Summers in the Adirondacks tend to be fast and furious. By mid-August there are already hints of fall: mornings and evenings are cool and the trees take on a yellower hue. College students are heading back to campus (my daughter leaves next week) and back-to-school preparations are being made. It's not over, but now summer quiets after six weeks of non-stop activity.

After the rush of summer I welcome the transition to autumn, my favorite season. Schroon Lake offers many fun summer activities - too many to try them all - and I have learned to make time for my favorites and let the rest go, lest summer plans collapse into utter chaos.

For the second summer in a row, one of the blessings of summer has been welcoming bellydance instructor Natalie Kalinowicz to the True North Yoga studio for a series of bellydance workshops. I shake the dust off my hip scarf (to the happy sound of jingling coins) and re-learn how to shimmy my hips. I started bellydancing in New Jersey before we made the move north and I miss it terribly. In addition to the fun exercise, bellydance encourages women to come together in community and dance just for themselves. There is one more workshop this Sunday, August 19th, at 3:00 pm. If you're in the area, join us!

Also on the "must-do" list for me is to see each of the four productions of the Adirondack Shakespeare Company. They call their style "Shakespeare in the Raw," meaning they use no sets and have very basic costumes and props. They focus on the acting, and I have to say I "get" so much more from the plays than any other time I've seen them performed. The actors are very entertaining as well. True North Yoga helps to "sponsor" their summer here by welcoming the actors to attend yoga classes when they get a break from performing and it is always lovely to have their energy in class. Plus they're really good at sounding "om."

Hamlet in the remains of the resort's ampitheater in what is now Scaroon Manor State Park

A new treat this summer has been Art in the Park, weekly art projects in Schroon Lake's Town Park facilitated by none other than my favorite artist and life coach Annie Gregson. While we weren't able to get there every week, my son and I have enjoyed making mosaics, mandala-like "kaleidoscope" drawings and, just this morning, turning abstract collages of colors and shapes...

into an even more abstract acrylic paintings.

Summer has been a glorious rush, and I'll probably miss it when it's gone, for a moment. But as the leaves begin to fall there will be new, albeit quieter, activities. I'll begin homeschooling my son and will be teaching my first advanced yoga studies and 200-hour yoga teacher training program. It looks like the Adirondacks will have at least four new yoga teachers by spring. And that will be as glorious as summer.