SUMMER SOLSTICE 2023

(Spoiler alert:  This post is compiled from previous, similar ones written for this celebration)

Wednesday, June 21, marks this annual event known as Solstice, Summer in the northern hemisphere, Winter in the southern hemisphere.  Literally, it’s the moment when the “sun stands still” before it starts back in the other direction and for those of us in the north, it is the “longest” day, meaning the most amount of sunlight and the official beginning of summer.

For half of the year we are inclined toward the sun and for the other half the southern hemisphere has this distinction.  Why this makes any difference to anyone, or to me, may be the question so let me offer a brief explanation.  You can read the scientific explanation here:

https://www.weather.gov/abq/clifeatures_summersolstice

I am one of those who follows the sun along the horizon in its northward and southward trek, often by watching the sun rise or the sun set and this way I have an idea of where we are in the year, on the planet.  I see this solar path as the result of both rotation and revolution and I sense a deeper connection to the earth and the sun.  I love the four seasons and I celebrate each one on the four dates of the two solstices and two equinoxes.

Four lessons in all of this for me are these: 1. It is a good thing to stand still before changing directions and to know on which axis I’m traveling and why.  2. How I let external conditions affect my internal frame of reference informs me about how my response will impact those around me.   3. While I am “in motion” during each of the seasons, the directions, activities and conditions under which I operate fluctuate appropriately, especially when I am in sync with the sun, the moon and the stars.   4.  Because my birth date is three days after solstice, I may be more affected than I know at the conscious level.

So, Happy Solstice again to each of you.  It’s another beginning for me, blessed with so many and by so many. What I will make of today, and tomorrow, remains to be seen.  My intention, from one of my favorite quotes, attributed to William Penn and Stephen (Etienne) Grellet:  “I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.”

P.S. One way we are celebrating today is to put up a large umbrella on the roof deck, a prime place to watch the sun, looking east and west, as well as north and south.