It’s 5:30 AM. On a Sunday. And I am wide awake.
I should get another hour or two of sleep, but I just can’t. It’s been light outside for about an hour, and the sun rose 25 minutes ago. The air is cool, the early morning sunbeams making their way through the trees are warm, and the birds are greeting the day with a symphony. This is my favorite time of day.
5:05 AM sunrise. 8:30 PM sunset. Fifteen hours and twenty-five minutes of sun above the horizon. Sixteen and a half hours of daylight.
Today is my ninth Summer Solstice living “up north”. Here in New Hampshire, today will have 6 hours and 22 minutes more daylight than the winter solstice. Where I grew up in Florida, that difference is only 3 hours and 28 minutes, and that’s a world of difference in impact on both nature and people.
Growing up in Florida, seasons never had a big impact on life. Sure, there was Hurricane Season, Tourist Season, and Stone Crab Season, but the earth didn’t change that much throughout the year. The temperature moved from warm to hot and back again. Some trees dropped some leaves in winter, but everything stayed green. And there was a time when you didn’t mow the grass as often, but the mower never got “put away”. The days were mostly the same – “Endless Summer” as one Florida license plate says.
My change in latitude definitely produced a change in attitude. While endless summer has its merits, I have come to appreciate the changing of the seasons. There is a season for yard work and a season for snow shoveling. A season for paddle boarding and a season for snowshoeing. A season for outdoor festivals and a season for cozy fires. A season for brilliantly colored leaves and a season for brilliantly colored flowers.
The seasons wait for no one. The sun moves across the sky, the weather changes, and the hummingbirds come and go unencumbered by silly human schedules and priorities.
Seasons lend a sense of urgency to the things that are truly important. Get out on the lake in summer because winter is coming. Go for a hike in autumn before the leaves are gone. Snowshoe in winter before the snow melts.
Put your calendar aside and respond to the rhythms of sun and earth and nature.
Today is the Summer Solstice. Tomorrow the days begin to grow shorter.
So enjoy this day, this season, this moment.
As Mac McAnally says, “Every Day is Once in a Lifetime”.
Enjoy each once in a lifetime day.
Where Are We Going Now? 