Celebrate! It's Summer Solstice
Celebrate it!
Today, June 21st marks the summer solstice in our northern half of the hemisphere. It’s the longest day and night of light, the official beginning of summer. Not that I fully understand this astronomical wonder though teachers explained repeatedly in geography classes complete with the diagrams showing the solar system and earth orbiting the sun and multiple lines drawn to and from. I tried. Believe me. But according to Alamac.com, today is the day “earth arrives at the point in its orbit where the North Pole is at its maximum tilt (about 23.5 degrees) toward the Sun.” And that, my friend, explains it clearly, finally—the rationale for the gift of the longest day of golden light that no money can buy.
So don’t be shy. Celebrate. Celebrate today every glimmer of light that shines through every shifting leaf, light that shimmers off every blade of green grass or makes its way in through the cracks of a curtain or a wide-open window.
Celebrate it because it’s also National Indigenous Peoples Day. And if there’s ever a time in Canada’s history that we need to pause and pay attention to First Nations matters, a time to learn from and about the past, a time to act in the present, it’s now. So, ask yourself what you will do to celebrate this day, being mindful that June is Indigenous Peoples Month and today specifically, summer solstice day, is named National Indigenous Peoples Day.
Today I’m educating myself more by reading an article from Unreserved—a great radio show on CBC hosted by Indigenous journalists and artists telling Indigenous stories. Have a look.
Celebrate today also because there will never be another June 21, 2022. A sober reminder that a day, any day, never repeats itself. No refunds on time.
Today is a light-lingering, shadow-shortening day for “we the North.” And that reminds me to think—how fares the South? Think as I sit on my cozy, yellow-themed deck looking out at light gathering in groves in the park.
I remind myself that gratitude and compassion light our way. Always.
Please check out my morning poem below and pause to give light to your own voice. Peace to you all and happy summer solstice!
Summer Solstice, 2022
My half is North
hemisphere
where today has
the longest stretch
of light
and your half
the shortest day
before morning makes
more changes to begin
your polar ascent
and my descent.
Solstice sojourn it is
as I sit in summer’s sun as
you stand in winter’s terrain
waiting.
We wait, we watch
the order in wonder
together—tilted forward
towards warm hopes
both light loving
sun gazing, planet grazing.
I have food today by the way.
Do you?