This past week saw the summer solstice, the longest day of the year here in the northern hemisphere. Also a full moon. A friend asked me if this synchronous culmination held any special significance to me.
It caused me to think.
The solstice is a time of peak vibrancy, vitality, vivacity. The days are finally warm and long enough where the bees wake up before us, the chickens look fat and happy, the cat stalks a moth across the lawn at dawn. You can hear the garden grow.
Life abounds.
So too the light.
Tomorrow the days start to slowly wane and we begin the long walk to winter but today…
Today we are wreathed in light.
Even at night, the moon will reflect the good silvery summer-light onto our darkened world, leaving no time, no space for the dark to creep in.
This time is hallowed. It is a time where the abundant strength of all the good green things that grow, of life at its zenith, is amplified and extended by a good lunar reflection that provides light where otherwise there is none. Every peak has a descent on the other side however, and that old wheel keeps turning.
It is an exodus of sorts; we begin our exit from the bright time of the year and start ever so slightly to feel the descent into the darkening time. Aware of this, perhaps only on a subconscious level, the masses feel the pull to leave the cities and relax in the country, by the sea, in the mountains, deep in the forests. This is the time of year we leave for greener pastures to rejuvenate, relax, heal before returning to the asphalt forests and all their taxing comforts that people can’t seem but love to escape.
Why escape to the country? Why the annual exodus along the interstate? Surely on paper there are less expensive ways to gain a little peace and quiet, a little serenity. Yet they return year after year, maybe even leaving an entire house empty in the “off season”1 just for a taste of some time by the lakes, the fields, the ocean, the mountains.
It speaks to the inherent goodness of these places, their innate sense of life and vitality. We go to the ocean and the waves remind us of our own heartbeat, our breath. We go to the forest to be reminded of what quiet sounds like — an increasingly rare commodity. We go to the mountains to be reminded of what it looks like to be unmoved by the chaotic and dissatisfied modern world. We go to see a little bit of light reflected by the moon and, in turn, to be reminded of our own good light.
I invite you to join me in pondering how we too can reflect the light we see in the natural world, how we too can amplify the good green gleam filtered through the bower, how we can make the dark times and places a little brighter, how we can usher beauty and goodness into a world that does not always feel beautiful and good. It is a privilege to even ponder the question.
Happy solstice everyone. May it be bright.
no season is ever “off” by the way; they are all exactly as they should be because they cannot know anything else but their own inherent perfection.
Imagine living in the kind of place which others escape to. Oh, wait. I do not have to.
This was such a great end to my day. Thank you