SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION

Friends,

For self-professed "greenies," summer solstice is a great. A "greenie" is anyone who wants to maintain and sustain the environmental paradise in which we live.

It's traditional for much of the world to celebrate the winter solstice with festivals like Christmas, Hannukah, Saturnalia and the like. Why ignore the summer solstice?  Neo-pagans gather to celebrate at Stonehenge. But for some reason, the general culture seems to ignore the day.

Rotation of earth (public domain, Wikimedia, Tau'olunga)

If you're in Seattle you can watch or even enter the Fremont Solstice Parade. Many of us can and must celebrate in our own ways. I certainly celebrate in mine in ways closer, perhaps, to the spirit of Stonehenge than to the entertainment at Fremont district.  

Personalized celebrating in Puget Sound area. When I lived in Tacoma and DuPont, WA, on the shores of Puget Sound, I loved the long sunlit evenings in the days the summer solstice. I'd stand at a window on the second floor of our house, look out over Puget Sound toward the Olympics and thrill at the slow fade of sunlight plus the illumination of high clouds between 9:30 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. 

Personal summer solstice celebrating in northern Oregon. Here, the dawn's early light is even more impressive to me than evening's late light. I wake up around  3:30 a.m., amazed that the firs and pines are already silhouetted against the northeastern sky. 

Now, a summer solstice lament. Lucy and I love to look at the stars on a clear winter's night, especially out of town where we're totally away from artificial light. I just don't see the same effect during the month before and after the summer solstice. That's what we'll be celebrating in the winter solstice.

I know a bit about the earth's rotation around the sun and something about the tilt of our planet's axis.  The thought of riding on a spaceship, rotating every 24 hours and simultaneously orbiting the sun, puts solstice into perspective. I'm a tiny speck of dust, fortunately able to encompass an elementary map of an entire part of the universe in my tiny brain. Great to be along on planet earth for the ride on on Spaceship Earth. Professor John Magee hung copies of early NASA photographs of earth in his office at University of Puget Sound, They still stick with me, as does John himself, one of the early environmental friendly "greenies" I knew.

I'm enjoying and celebrating my 75th summer solstice! How will you enjoy yours? Please leave a comment if you wish to share. Also, click below to share this post on your favorite social site.