Chapter 9
Summer Musings
August 2026 | Paintings 47-49 in My 100 Dresses
Chapter 9 | August 2026
The Story
It happens every year. Summer approaches and we feel her energy building. It’s tangible, exciting. Weekends fill quickly with outdoor excursions, week-nights with new hobbies, and we finally embark on those long overdue holiday trips. But somewhere towards the end of July, the energy shifts. The newness of it all has passed and we begin to realize that these long, golden days will not last forever, and suddenly, like an unspoken rule, we all begin to slow down.
Chapter 9, “Summer Musings,” is inspired by those late summer days when we finally let ourselves sink into the slow rest of summer.
Chapter 9
Summer Musings
"Let’s Go To the Flower Shop"
The Poem
Let’s Go To the Flower Shop
Let’s go to the flower shop,
where everything is
both lovely
and temporary,
here today and gone tomorrow.
And I can’t help but wonder
if life becomes a lot sweeter
when we stop
spinning and toiling and stressing
over preserving what was
never meant to last,
and simply embraced
that there is a time to bloom
and a time to fade,
maybe—just maybe,
we would finally see
how beautiful
this life really is.
- Andrea Jacobsen Poetry
"Waiting on Sunshowers”
The Poem
Waiting on Sunshowers
Will you dance with me
even when it rains?
When the summer storms
fall heavy,
when life thunders
and the floods rage within me,
will you remind me that it’s okay
to jump in puddles
even when they come
all the way up past our ankles?
And will you take my hand
and spin me through the tears
reminding me to live with
hopeful expectation
because sometimes,
when you least expect it,
a sunshower will appear,
a heavenly promise
that it will not rain
forever.
- Andrea Jacobsen Poetry
"Summer Nights"
The Poem
Summer Nights
If I’m ever lost, I hope to be found
on a summer night,
where childhood memories live forever
and moonlit beaches promise romance
and possibility,
where campfires draw out
our unspoken stories
and the world seems,
even for a minute,
like everything might be
all right.
- Andrea Jacobsen Poetry
A Note
🚨from the Artist🚨
Thank you for taking the time to experience Chapter 8, A Journey with Joy! What is unique about this collection is that it was directly inspired by the process of creating the previous chapter of artwork. In Chapter 7, I spent months interviewing women who have all walked through some of the darkest experiences imaginable. I needed to know how they survived. One thing that each of the women carried with them was a remarkable and contagious joy. They laughed generously and encouraged others without reservation. It was as if joy itself had woven itself into these women. Their lives largely inspired this collection. I hope this chapter reminds you to delight often in the good things of life, and when the hard times come, to remember that joy has never been afraid to accompany us into the dark.
- Andrea Jacobsen