Happy Mid-Summer's Day
It's the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. From this point all our days will shorten until we reach the Winter Solstice six months from now. Animals will begin growing their winter coats after today, and already the harvest is ripening. This is the best time of the year, lazy hot days that remind us of childhood and time spent staring into azure skies filled with puffy white pillows.
Who doesn't love summer, especially as a child? Days when everything was possible and our future was limited only by imagination. Time was spent chasing the wind and climbing trees, exploring the universe until the streetlights came on and the fireflies went to bed. Then you dragged yourself into the tub and scrubbed dirt from half of the county off your skin and avowed to your mother of having no idea how that hole got in the seat of your shorts.
Days watching the fields grow, the baby animals of spring become the children of summer, and for one brief moment it seems possible that August will never arrive, that you will be allowed to stay in this land of sunshine and honeysuckle. Evenings you churn fresh ice cream with berries from the vines in the back yard, and debate the day's activities with gravitas and humor. Night is only to recharge and to dream of new adventures in distant lands, usually the neighboring woods and pastures.
Summer is the season of growth for of nature, flora and fauna, the season of preparation. No matter what, this is when we must get ready, stretch and grow, tend to the harvest to come. As the days grow shorter a sense of urgency comes over us, to gather, to store, to get ready for the lean times of winter. That still applies, even in this age of devices and connections to the ether.
So get your nose out of your laptop, grab some water, your sunglasses, and some sunscreen and head outside. Grow something, can something, make jelly, or just cut the grass, but enjoy the lazy days of abundance. Before your winter coat starts growing...
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