Are the Dog Days of summer drawing to a close? Are we feeling a little chill in the air as the long evenings of summer begin to shorten? We’ve had our share of those warm sultry days. But we’re not complaining. We will remember them fondly in mid January. According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the Dog Days of summer go from July 3rd to August 11th, coinciding with the morning rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. And that tradition goes back to the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians who believed that it was Sirius that brought the hot muggy weather.

Have you been fortunate enough to have some time away from keeping the wheels of the world turning? Hats off to all who have been there to entertain us, feed us, keep us healthy and safe. They make it possible for many of us to travel, visit, entertain and enjoy a time apart from the rest of the year.

We need a time apart. Around the lake there are the summer people and the year-around people. For all, the lake is our summer playground. It can be both a hive of activity and a place of tranquility and peace.

Sometimes a pause in the usual round of life gives us the opportunity to try new things, go to new places or reconnect with family and friends. It may even give rise to thoughts and wishes, dreams and yearnings that lie asleep within us most of the time.

Perhaps in the quiet of an evening or in intimate chats with friends we take a look at life.

Is ours going as we would like? Are we thankful for the gift of being alive in this world? Are we doing what we need to do? Are we living the values we espouse? Is there some inner urge or call that we are ignoring? Perhaps the answer is “Keep calm and carry on.” Or there may be changes we need to make. It is good to take a look at whatever stirs within us. Being in tune with ourselves gives us solidity and depth.

I always thought it was Socrates who said, “Know Thyself.” A little investigation reveals that it has been attributed to many Greek thinkers and appeared on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. It is wisdom that has been around for a long while. Taking a plunge into the mystery which is one’s self can be a scary challenge or a soul satisfying journey. As one mystic asked me, “How deep into the cave do you want to go?” It can be an exploration without end, but discovering a few landmarks that tell us something of who we are, or need to be, is worth pursuing.

The world-out-there needs us to be our true selves. And the world-out-there is our immediate world of family, friends, community, work, etc. It also reaches to the aching need of all humanity to become mature and whole. There is a whole world out there that is much more and larger than we are. In some profound sense we are accountable to the Universe. Life calls us to contribute what is ours to give for the good of the human family, the earth, and ultimately the Universe.

Almost a hundred years ago Martin Buber, a Jewish philosopher, wrote a book, I and Thou. He was saying that we usually think of the world-out-there as an “it.” We don’t think of “it” as having a life and purpose of which we are a part. If we listen carefully to our own depths the Universe becomes a “thou,” an intimate other that draws us into the fullness of who we are and our place in the world. We are a partner with the grand purpose of the Universe, even though it will always be a mystery that we can grasp only in glimpses.

We do well to follow the closing words of a whole soliloquy of good advice given by Polonius to Laertes in Shakespear’s Hamlet. “This above all: to thine own self be true,. And it must follow, as the night the day,. Thou canst not then be false to any (one).”