By Lisa Scottoline
Who doesn’t love summer?
It is our reward for three seasons of going full-speed, twenty-four seven, in a world that is too complex and way too fast.
We all need a break, especially mothers.
All year around, we have to get everybody ready in the morning, while we pack lunches and find somebody’s missing sneaker.
But it’s summertime, and we get a breather and if we’re lucky, a vacation.
During which we get everybody ready in the morning, while we pack lunches and find somebody’s missing sneaker.
But we do it in a nicer place.
To me, the best part of summer is that the entire world relaxes just a bit, letting down mentally, easing off the gas emotionally.
That’s what we all truly need, a July of the mind.
A time to wear mental flip-flops.
Fewer clothes.
More laughter.
An excess of wasted time.
Life, unplugged.
To me, the best part of summer is the beach.
It’s all about the beach.
Every time I drive into a shore town, I can feel my mood lift and my spirit lighten.
I drive into town, past the saltwater taffy and fudge stores, then the swirly custard stands, fried clam joints, and the drugstores that sell suntan lotion, where the only bottles left will have an SPF of 2 or 18326.
And nothing in between.
I know I’m at the beach when I pass my favorite store, which is the one that sells inflatable toys for kids, so outside will be oversized inflatable alligators, puffy rings like multicolored Lifesavers, funky boogie boards, and foam noodles growing out of a barrel like so many Gerber daisies.
Minus the Gerber daisy part.
The salt air, the warm sun, the happy smiles; all of it is the stuff of summer.
And the great thing is, I feel that way whether I’m on vacation or not.
In fact, I’m going on tour this month for my new novel THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING and Francesca will be joining me at some stores for her new paperback of FULL BLOOM, and even that will feel like a vacation, just because it’s summer time. Hope you can join the fun! The tour schedule can be found on my website.
We’ll drive around together, switching off on the driving, blasting music, eating snacks, and sitting in traffic, just like every great family road trip.
We’re really ordinary and normal, and the more you read about us, the more you’ll see your own life and your own families reflected herein.
Except that you probably behave better.
Because although our relationship is wonderful and we are truly each other’s best friends, that doesn’t mean we don’t fight. I’m here to say that we have fought our way through beaches along the East Coast and we’ll be doing it again this month.
Yay!
Which brings me to my point.
Even in summertime, there will be problems.
You’ll get in fights with your kids.
Or you’ll get in fights with your mother or father.
Everybody knows that a family vacation is hardest on the family.
Also, things will go wrong, like the weather won’t cooperate.
You’ll find yourself with five days of vacation and four days of clouds, which means you’ll stare at your phone, laptop, or television, mentally calculating how much it’s costing you to be depressed in a new location.
Plus, you’ll find yourself spending way too much time in the local grocery store, which will gouge you on price.
Also, the drugstore, which will gouge you on price.
And any restaurant, which will gouge you on price.
Finally, you will get sand in all the wrong places.
You’ll get sand in your sneakers.
You won’t be able to shake all of it out.
You’ll get sand stuck in the elastic in your bathing suit.
You won’t be able to rinse all of it out.
You’ll even get sand in your hair, blown by the wind off the sea onto your very scalp.
You won’t be able to wash it out.
The sand will come back to the rental house with you, where it will fall on the floor, and when you drive home, it will be in the well underneath the gas pedal. You will track it inside your own house, and you will feel a grittiness under your toes in your very own bedroom, maybe even your sheets.
Don’t let the sand bother you.
And above all, don’t nag each other about it or whine about it, because that misses the point.
Flip it.
Think of the sand as fairy dust.
Because it is.
It’s a magical sprinkling of a summertime mood.
If you’re lucky, the sand will always be with you, wherever you go. A gritty little reminder under your feet.
And in your undies.
Summer is truly a state of mind.
If you keep that with you at all times – by that I mean, the mentally easing of worry, the emotional letting go, and more smiles in general – you will have a happier and healthier year.
Until summer rolls around again, and you get to go back to the beach.
To bring home more sand.
Enjoy.
Lisa’s new novel THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING will be out on July 14, 2026.
Francesca’s novel FULL BLOOM will be available in paperback on July 21, 2026.
Copyright © 2026 Lisa Scottoline