A field of golden wheat undulating like the sea in the soft summer breeze. Red poppies and blue cornflowers bending their glorious heads in harmony. The blazing sun soaking the earth with its life-giving warmth.

If you punch the word “summer” into any image bank, this is one of the illustrations that pop up. With our military still in Afghanistan, oil spills fouling the earth and oceans of our neighbour to the south, employment sucking the lifeblood from families, the only thing blazing this summer in Canada is the recession.

Some politicians, hoping to minimize public reaction, call it a minor setback; others, fully intending to create panic, call it a calamity. However it is portrayed, the debate drives home that it is time for all of us to embrace the metaphorical meaning of summer, drop the baggage of winter and travel light.

Let’s step it up a notch with this crowd of involved people. Let’s ask ourselves: How do we shed all these preconceived notions about the environment and politics and start ... light—by learning to interpret national and international issues in the context of how they affect our life and our present? Rather than globalize, I am suggesting that we individualize both our opinions and our actions. Start by becoming better informed. Then update your view of the reality of your life. And then, from that updated view, make small changes.

How to feel grounded and light and shed the extra baggage to travel light during the hot remaining summer months:

1. Invest in yourself by being informed and knowledgeable
2. Be a model citizen by being active and learn to view recession, wars, and environmental disasters through an individual and updated lens rather than one that has been created for you by politicians and media

Shed the conditioning while reassessing this ever-changing world, and be careful not to shed the brain. Notice what has changed around you and then, with that new information, determine how you can contribute to this planet, what you can do to serve the world and better your life—all with lightness and yet a blazing heart.