Our sister, Linda, lives in Boulder, Colo. She likes to come visit us here in Kansas in August. August, you may say? Most people who live in Kansas want to be somewhere else come August.

Three things happen in August in Kansas that I find special and wonderful.

The last of our harvests begin. Food prices drop as we enjoy the wonderful bounties from the earth. Sometimes, our tables are laden with food grown in our own gardens or backyard pots. Outdoor dinning seems easier and more relaxed with daylight-saving time still in place.

If we have been training well through the summer, we reach the end of our long days, tired and happy. With luck, our day's work has been satisfying and productive. We look great. It is time to enjoy.

After dinner, we often like to take a stroll around our neighborhood park as the sun starts to drop its red ball of fire from the sky and that little "break" from the heat comes in on a light breeze.

It is still hot enough to sweat. I like to think of sweat as weakness leaving the body.

About halfway around the park, the locusts start their song. The flowers and trees are almost at their peak of summer growth and provide a spectacle to behold. Some of our neighbors, who we rarely see in the winter, are out tending their gardens and wave as we admire the results of their efforts. Children enjoy playing outside, chasing fireflies, laughing, still carefree without schoolwork. It is the last of their summer vacation.

Linda especially enjoys sitting in the porch swing, sipping lemonade or iced tea, telling stories about past experiences in the family. We sit around the patio table, solving the problems of the world and dreaming about the future. Things seem more hopeful with the Earth's fulfilling promises so evident.

As the night begins to close around us, the songs of the locusts escalate. I like to see if I can hear the first one each evening. To me, that is a beautiful, special sound, familiar from my childhood. It is a sound I took for granted as a younger woman. Now, when I hear it, I feel like I am home.

It is easy for me to understand why our sister prefers August to visit us in Kansas.

You see, in Boulder, even in August, there are no nights that are this hot. hk

Kathleen Hunter Levy , Topeka, LSCSW, is a social worker/psychotherapist, personal trainer/clinical exercise specialist and Pilates teacher at a studio at Maximus Fitness and Wellness, in association with Dr. Ed Levy, her husband. She has her own small business, A Healing Place: Personal Training for Body, Mind and Spirit. Readers can contact her at kathleenhlevy@aol.com.