The Sun was there with the Greens, So Was I!

 

Some days just start with a no-plan routine. No jam-packed itinerary. No time-schedule. It’s just the warm sun, oversized goofy looney tunes shirt that deserves a stroll. It felt like one of those days when the sun felt like a personal invitation - and I RSVP’d yes, with a tote filled with a book, a cap and a sunscreen and a water bottle. 

I visited the Glasgow Botanic Gardens, because if the Sun shows up in Scotland, you damn sure show up back. Without questions. I have never been to a greenhouse before - not like something that’s featured on pinterest posts and movies. Entering it, felt like a forest dream - with well behaved plants, humidity that frizzed my hair, canopy playing hide and seek with you! My mind? Calm. Nature has it’s way to reach you like no one else! I wandered around for an hour, peeking and saying ‘hi’ to my green friends, before finding myself a soft shady patch to open my book.

The book? ‘Summer in the City’ by Fiona Collins. Picked it up a week before, while waiting for my friend at the Women’s Library (her work-place). It was a random pick — or that’s what I told myself. But I don’t think we ever really choose a book. I feel, it chooses you. It finds you, calls out softly from the shelf, and somehow without even realising you reach for it. Not because we are meant to, but because our hands and our heart knew before our mind caught up.

After picking up the book, I loved the title. Maybe because I was feeling a little stuck in the city, and a little lost in the summer. The pages turned over, sun basking people with joy - and suddenly I realised that I didn’t think about my to-do list. The book itself? It wasn’t over dramatic or usual romances I go for - it felt like a gentle hug, I didn’t know I needed! It turned out to be that kind of read! You know… The quiet comfort! The book that says, ‘Hey, it’s okay to be messy. You’re still striving!’

The book follows a woman navigating love, friendship, self-acceptance and family - all set in blazing city of London. It was all about missed connections, second chances, emotional messiness and everything in-between that makes life beautiful. There were few moments in the book where the character talks about how we always wait for that ‘big moment’ — but it isn’t. It’s always the small ones that finish the puzzle of our lives. That hit me. Because here I was waiting for that moment. But I guess I needed this day. It wasn’t a typical love story - or maybe it was! A love story of how to fall in love with yourself, the mundane things and life. 

I was in a place of fogginess. I didn’t feel lost or sad.. Just maybe unclear. And this book reminded me that clarity doesn’t always come in big carousels, sometimes, it just comes in a whisper of a fictional character who tries to figure themselves out by having an awkward conversation or exploring a new coffee shop.

I finished the last chapter. I closed the book. The breeze became softer. The Sun became more kinder. It just felt right — sitting among hundreds of people, thousands of leaves. I learned that self-love doesn’t always look like bubble baths and shopping spree. But sometimes, it’s just picking up your goofiest shirt because you felt like it! Or walking around because the sky is blue. Or letting a random book remind you that life isn’t beautiful always, but at least it’s yours!

So, yes I did it! I spent a summer day… A summer day in the city. And I guess that’s the fun of it! A little wandering. A little getting lost. A little sunshine. A little fiction. And in-between finding that you’re actually doing okay!