Let summer rearrange you

I usually jog. I consider myself a bad runner, but I still try. However, there’s no way I’m going out for a 5K in this heat. So I guess I’m an even worse runner now.

Summer has that effect. The habits we worked so hard to build — exercise routines, prayer schedules, clean eating, journaling — start slipping through our fingers like sunscreen-slicked rosary beads. One week turns into three, and suddenly our carefully cultivated disciplines are somewhat sunburned and forgotten on a beach somewhere.

But maybe that’s okay.

Summer doesn’t just disrupt our routines — it invites us into a different rhythm altogether. And rhythm, not rigid scheduling, is at the heart of Catholic life. Our liturgical calendar moves through fasts and feasts, Ordinary Time and high holy days. Even creation pulses in rhythm: day and night, work and rest, growth and harvest.

It’s tempting to feel guilty about dropping the ball when life gets warm and unstructured. But that guilt might be misplaced. The Church has never been obsessed with hustle culture. In fact, she’s a little suspicious of it.

St. Benedict, patron saint of order and balance, baked “holy leisure” into his rule. He knew the human soul needs time to breathe — to wander, wonder, and be still.

Rest, for Catholics, isn’t about doing nothing. It’s about making room for something else. It’s the space where we notice. Where we receive. Where we remember we are not machines.

The Gospels are full of these moments — Jesus meeting people not during their best efforts, but in the in-between: while failing at fishing, fetching water, walking down a road. Summer, in all its looseness, might be just the right space for those encounters.

So if you’re watching your habits melt like popsicles on the pavement, don’t panic (yet). Maybe instead of gripping harder, you can shift your grip. Keep your anchors — Mass, daily prayer, a walk that becomes a kind of listening — and let the rest stretch out a little.

Let your plans be interruptible for a few weeks. Say yes to things that don’t fit the plan. Read a line and don’t rush to the next thing. Watch the clouds move. Laugh with friends. Sit longer at dinner. These are not distractions from the spiritual life — they are the spiritual life, if we’re paying attention.

Pope Francis, in Laudato Si’, included a whole section on the celebration of rest, noting that “rest opens our eyes to the larger picture and gives us renewed sensitivity to the rights of others.” That picture isn’t about progress charts or performance. It’s about living well in a created world, where grace so often arrives when we’re not looking for it.

So yes, I’ve skipped my runs. But I’ve also noticed the birds coming to my balcony in the morning, shared unexpected conversations, and lingered in the quiet just a little longer. Maybe that’s its own kind of training — just for the soul.

Let summer rearrange you. You might not be a better runner by September, but you just might be more human.