I don’t have a favorite season of the year, but I really love the leisure of summer. The long days are perfect for enjoying extra time outdoors (although now that I am a mom, I spend a good amount of that time applying sunscreen to my exceptionally pale children). Perhaps what I love most about summer is the slowed pace; the calendar isn’t so full and it’s just a bit easier to be in the moment. And for me, as I imagine for many of you, the long and sweet summer days bring extra time for reading.

Every summer, I look forward to enjoying a number of different books: at least one piece of fiction I’ve been waiting to open, something spiritual or philosophical as I prepare for the High Holy Day season, and often a favorite book from another life chapter. Re-reading a favorite book can be such a gift: There’s an invitation to remember who we were when we first read it and also to learn something new, something we weren’t quite ready to see before. Last week, I opened my childhood prayerbook, Gates of Prayer, and enjoyed once more all of my favorite meditations and accompanying notes. This one stood out to me:

I harbor within—we all do—a vision of my highest self, a dream of what I could and should become. May I pursue this vision, labor to make real my dream. Thus will I give meaning to my life. An artist in the course of painting will pause, lay aside the brush, and consider what needs to be done, what direction is to be taken. So does each of us have time to pause to reflect. As I hope to make my life a work of art, so may this season help me to turn back to the canvas of life to paint the portrait of my highest self.

I hope you’ll make time this summer for reading, for revisiting the cherished and exploring the new, for working towards your highest and best self, letting this be a meaningful summer season of making the most out of life.

—Cantor Emma Lutz