The beginning of summer, real summer, when the swimming pools open and the amusement parks are in full swing. The trees are lush with their fresh new  tender green leaves, butterflies appear and dragonflies and insects of the sort that you’ve never laid eyes on before hinting at new and exciting adventures that await you in the coming new season of warm weather. It’s the time for floating down the river in a tube or lying in a hammock on a lazy Sunday afternoon entranced in the beauty of the sun-sparkled leaves of the trees against the vivid azure sky. Summer is HERE!

June also brings with it Father’s Day. A time to reflect upon one of the persons responsible for bringing us into the world. Maybe he was a great father, maybe he wasn’t so great. Either way, he gave us a brilliant opportunity to grow, to expand and become more. It was an outright blessing or a blessing in disguise. Did we recognize it? What have we done with it? Did we take it and run or did we whine about it? Can we just cut him a break, give him the benefit of the doubt and say “he did the best he could with what he had”? Whether or not you can, Father’s Day is coming June 17th. You can say thank you Dad with a bar or two of some of the best handcrafted soap in the world for the great dad OR you could just treat yourself to some and mentally say “Here’s to you Dad” for the not so great dad.