The Longest Day of the Year

Today marked the Summer Solstice, also known as the official beginning of summer, also known as the longest day of the year.

Of course, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere, it's the exact opposite, and you're welcoming the return of the light, now!

I've always loved the very long summer days we have, here in the high north. And we're not even as far north as my native Denmark, where I grew up.

I suppose it meant a lot to me as a kid because we were out of school, and could stay outside playing football (soccer) till it got dark.

Of course, these days I'm more oriented towards sitting in a comfy chair outside, watching the birds and insects go by... and just enjoying the beauty of nature.

Whereas I might be inclined to claim otherwise, I have pretty much always been more of an observer than a front-line participant in most aspects of life.

Even when I was little, I spent a lot of time just observing my surroundings, always studying what I was seeing in great detail. Much of this attention to detail ended up informing my later life... for example, the mandala patterns I have been painting on stones for 15 years or so are inspired by the patterns you might see at the center of a flower.

Think a white daisy is just white petals around a yellow "button" center? Think again! Look again! There are actually tiny "future seeds" in a spiraling pattern.

Being from a fairly cold place, this time of the year also meant the beginning of when we would start eating lunch and dinner outside... at least sometimes.

It also meant access to truly fresh food... food we'd mostly grown ourselves. Sometimes, there'd also be the fish we'd caught ourselves. There's just something about that degree of freshness that's hard to explain... but you can definitely taste it!

And it serves as a bit of a reminder of how far removed from the source of production we have grown, when we head to the supermarket and buy something that was "fresh" but put into a package, and then shipped across the country to our neighborhood.

Tomatoes from the garden, last year

I'm busy these days... but did take a moment to observe and enjoy this longest day of the year.

Tomorrow, I'll be "up and at 'em" at oh-dark-thirty as the weekend fair begins and I am setting up my vendor table to sell artwork, and hopefully make a little supplemental income.

Already got my space partially set up today, and everything is unloaded and ready to be put out in a presentable fashion tomorrow, when the doors open at 8:00am... open to the public at 9:00am.

I suppose I am "living the dream" at least in the sense that I don't have to go to some soulless job every day!

And, on that light note, I'm going to head off for a few hours' sleep before the festivities begin!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Friday!

How about you? Did you observe/celebrate the solstice today? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 2024.06.20 23:44 PDT
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