Summer Solstice

Today is the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, the longest day of the year - a time for standing still (as the sun appears to) to take stock and for celebrating the warmth and joy in our lives. It's a day that is fertile with the optimism of summer days, and nights.

What is it about summer that brings out the best in us? Even on a muggy, cloudy day like it is here, we throw open the windows, bare our legs and look up. Perhaps the vibrancy of colour makes us look around and outside of ourselves. Ideally, the warmer temperatures should cause us to unfurl from our winter wrappings, although British summers can rarely be relied upon for a multitude of sunny days. Maybe it's the smell of freshly mown grass or suntan lotion (which we British stoically bring out from around April each year, regardless of the weather). It could be all of these things and more, but summer definitely brings on a change in our outlook.

Life can be a treadmill, not necessarily an unpleasant one, but a path that keeps us focussed on getting through the daily routine. Events like the summer solstice provide us with a chance to step off the path for a moment and look around, get some perspective, just breathe. Just be.

Perhaps we should learn to carry that feeling around with us a little more often, lift our head and see the good stuff rather than hurrying by on our journey from A to B.

When life races by

When the days, and the nights,
slip by in the pass of a hand,
and the details of your life
blur into a shade of mud,
search for these things -
the touch of the grass,
the  breath of the sky,
and the reach of the trees.
Touch.
Breathe.
Reach.