06.20.16

For weeks now, it’s been this bright in our bedroom when we go to bed, and you can read without ever having to turn on the bedside lamp.  At 2 am this morning, with the bright moon shining in my window, I could have picked up where I left off in my novel.  I’m going to bed by day, as Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in A Child’s Garden of Verses:

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

Today is the Summer Solstice and a full moon (the strawberry moon) at the same time. Turns out, that’s a once in a lifetime event. The next time there will be a full moon on the Solstice is June 21, 2062–I won’t be here for that one.  Over my first cup of coffee this early morning, after I checked the NOAA weather forecast, I clicked to the Earth & Sky blog.  This morning’s post read:

There is a deep understanding in Chinese tradition of nature’s predictable cycle. The understanding of nature’s cycle could be applied to many things: not just the seasons or the growth of plants, but also, for example, relationships, one’s work, the development of a child, emotions, the progress of a disease, a life in its totality.

It goes on to tell us that summer is associated with the color red, the heart organ, fire, and, most importantly, laughing.  Imagine–a season in which laughing is the dominant emotion.  This is not just another day.  At some point,  I must step out of my busyness and honor ‘nature’s predictable cycle.’  Per Chinese instructions, I’ll take in the “southness” by standing on the dock and face south.  I’ll wear a red T-shirt and make an intention to laugh a lot this Summer.  And, a final suggestion provided by the Chinese is to balance the fire element by jumping into cold water.  I have that opportunity in our cold cold lake…but I think I’ll just substitute a cold beer, and consider that good enough.  Happy Summer!