Summer is the season that holds our vacations and camps, retreats and slower pace—except we blink, and it’s over. Funny that a time when we seemingly power down is one of the fastest of our calendar. Like petals in a drenching storm, the pages fall away before we turn them. Time flies as we try to tack down the details of our lives like a blanket flapping in the wind.
We’re in speed boats, occasionally catching the view as it whizzes by, feeling the engine cut through the current. Is it better to fill our days to the brim, skimming along the surface of life? Or is it better to go deep into the moment right where we are?
Time is in the mind of the beholder—filled with scattered details, speeding up as we age. The art of slowing down really means the act of being present—and summer, with its gentle pull to less complicated living, is the perfect excuse.
This issue, our 99th edition of TOWN, is a focus on slowness. On camp nostalgia, homegrown floral arrangements, farm-grown produce, walks in the woods. It’s the last of the bottle on a warm night. It’s the clink of pint glasses at your favorite brewery. It’s a melting popsicle, sweet and sticky, down your hand. It’s the good life that summer brings into sharp clarity—because during this season, we’re blessed with both the indoors and out. They blend seamlessly, harmoniously, with sweet scents and birdsong and cricket chirps in the humid air. We live in the best of all worlds here. We’re lucky. Find your pleasure in these pages—and take it outside.
Blair Knobel, Editor-in-Chief, blair@towncarolina.com
