July always seems like a happy time to me. Perhaps it’s because it’s summertime. And, it probably also has to do with the fact that my mother and little brother both celebrate their birthdays during the month of July (yes, my little brother is turning another year older in a few days!)
But, I also think it’s because I’ve always loved July 4th–Independence Day! It’s an excuse for us all to relax, lounge back (on National Hammock Day, July 22nd), and believe that anything is possible (even overthrowing the Mother Country). We just need to have a little faith…
Of course, since I already love this month, I’ve also enjoyed lots of the quotes, lines, phrases and words that have risen up about the month! Which of these are your favorite(s), or please share your best-loved lines in the comments below 
“The Summer looks out from her brazen tower,
Through the flashing bars of July.”
– Francis Thompson, A Corymbus for Autumn
Do you see July as a figure arisen in some lofty white tower? Or, is it part of the grassy lawn or turf–a welcome piece of the everyman? Or perhaps, it even feels like July really belongs with that bunch of kids who are hanging out down by the muddy pond, creek or racing river? Where does July belong? In what setting do you prefer to imagine it?
There’s something dreamy and relaxing in what Terri Guillemets wrote about July:
“I drifted into a summer-nap under the hot shade of July, serenaded by a cicadae lullaby, to drowsy-warm dreams of distant thunder.”
In the US, it’s also a time when we celebrate July in parks, camp grounds and at the lake. All in the name of the 4th of July, we watch fireworks go off overhead. We make a mess–with watermelon, ice cream and backyard BBQ. Erma Bombeck said:
“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. ”
Beyond the patriotic splendors of eating, playing, and swatting at flies–there’s something almost catch-in-the-throat tragic about the last days of summer… watching the final days slip away, and looking forward to the Fall and Winter days. The stifling heat-ridden days speak of endings.
Joe Wheeler wrote:
“There is something deep within us that sobs at endings. Why, God, does everything have to end? Why does all nature grow old? Why do spring and summer have to go?”
Perhaps it’s because the Summer has always brought such fun and laughter, and Fall always speaks of something dark-moldering.
Even before July is done, I already wish that we could begin it all over again…
