On the day of the year when most Northern Hemispherian's thoughts bounce around the longest day of the year, or the start of summer, mine are decidedly elsewhere. For today our eternal sun has reached it's apex, and is now descending towards night.
To be sure it is a ways off, it will be another six weeks before it begins to set again, but on this day my thoughts always turn to the gathering dark. You often will hear me say that I don't mind the dark season, and truly I don't. But today the light season always seems to have peaked to soon, that some how 3 months of constant sun (a sun that's been mostly shrouded in cloud these last two or so weeks) is not enough. There is a peacefulness, a sense of contentment, that comes from walking on the tundra alone at 2:00 am. And with the pressing urgency of a responsible life there are little enough opportunities for those silent hikes through hills filled with birdsong.
So tomorrow I'll celebrate six more weeks of an unsetting sun, and the glorious fall whose light changes daily. Today I'll think on the coming dark skies filled with stars, and the resilient ravens, who will share it with me.
Comments
6 responses
Poetic thoughts, Clare. Enjoy the sun!
Thanks for the reminder. It’s always fun imagining the far northern sky this time of year.
I was thinking about the same thing yesterday. While I agree with your feelings on walking on the tundra alone, I feel the same sentiment when it’s in the middle of dark season. Those cold, clear nights (days?) are something that always makes me think about how the world really should be.
Those of us who have experienced these light/dark extremes are very lucky indeed!
Kia ora Clare,
Happy Solstice from the Southern Hemisphere! A cold wintry day here, though still green. Snow predicted at sea level in Wellington, so that is pretty cold for these parts. Cheers.
Ka kite ano,
Robb
The last few nights I have been noticing, around 10:30 p.m., a lingering brightness in the sky to the north. Well, slightly west of north, but still much more north than anything else. I like it. And it won’t last long.
Thanks all