The promise of June

For some people, the start of a new year is the time to reenergize and look ahead with optimism. For others it's the coming of spring.

To me, though, you can't beat the arrival of June.

I once called June "the greatest month of the year," and I stand by that.

Part of it is the weather. I am grateful to live in Northeast Ohio 365 days a year, but when it comes to getting outside and being active, June has the best balance of warm, sunny days without the near-Florida-like humidity that comes along in July and August.

Also, for the first several years of your life, June probably meant summer vacation. You played, you relaxed, and you got yourself ready for the next grade up in school, whatever that may have been.

It is also as good a time as any to address whatever it is in your life that needs addressing. Just as the cold and snow are behind us, so too can be the problems and issues that have weighed on your mind for so long. The calendar has flipped, so your attitude may as well change with it.

Easier said than done, I understand, but you have to start sometime. June 1st is a pretty good candidate.

Happy June, everybody (even to my Southern Hemisphere friends for whom June is more a reminder that winter is on the way...on balance, you still have better weather than we do.)

The greatest month of the year has arrived

It's June 1st, everybody, which means several things:

• Winter has definitely ended in Cleveland. I never feel safe in saying that until the first of June.(NOTE TO NORTHEAST OHIOANS: Pay no attention to the fact that it was in the 40s this morning. We'll be back into the upper 70s by mid-week. It's all good.)
• Suburban white guys from one end of Northeast Ohio to the other are out working in their yards shirtless in the hope of getting a nice tan while minimizing their risk of developing a nasty skin cancer.
• The smell of charcoal and burnt steak will hang over my neighborhood from now until mid-September.
• School is almost over.

Ah yes, school. My kids' last day is tomorrow, which is amazing to me. When I was growing up, we never got out of school before June 10th. And it was generally more toward the middle of the month before they finally set us free.

Of course, that's because we didn't even start school until after Labor Day. This year, classes here in Wickliffe will start up again on August 18th, which is a bit puzzling to me. August 18th is still summer. It's still the time when we get 90-degree days with high humidity. It's still a time when kids should be out swimming and having fun, rather than being stuck in our ancient, non-air-conditioned school buildings.

Or maybe that's just me. I would love to see us go back to the old calendar when Labor Day marked the end of summer, academically and otherwise. But it won't happen, largely because school districts are, as I understand it, trying to increase the amount of instructional time the kids get before they're subjected to mandatory state testing. So I get it. I just don't like it.

Still, regardless of when school lets out, June is the best month on the calendar. It's warm, people are happy, vacations are starting, and in our case we get to hold Chloe's graduation party in a couple of weeks. Just an all-around good time.

June also has Flag Day. I feel bad for Flag Day because it's essentially the Millard Fillmore of holidays, so I always think it deserves more credit than it gets. It's the one June holiday we have besides Father's Day, everyone, so be nice to it.

June also has my wedding anniversary (which perhaps not coincidentally is also the anniversary of D-Day), the summer solstice, and Bloomsday, which happens on June 16th and celebrates the day on which James' Joyce's novel Ulysses takes place. I hated reading Ulysses in college and thus will not be celebrating Bloomsday, but I wanted to throw it out there in case you're interested.

Before we know it, it will be July 4th, which to me always feels like the halfway point of summer even though that's not quite true chronologically. Once the Fourth of July hits, summer starts going by way too quickly. My kids get involved in church and school activities, and the chaos of fall and back-to-school gets more and more real every day.

So enjoy June while you can. Get out there and embrace summer.

And Flag Day. Don't forget poor Flag Day.