Summer Solstice

Another year spent far from the Arctic Circle, unable to revel in the beautiful madness that is summer solstice where it matters. Where for one moment, the day is impossibly long, the Life without limit. Well aware that Midsummer's always gave me a twinge of anxiety, because this was the moment it turned. From now on, every day the Darkness would inch its way further and further into awareness. It was all downhill from here.

But how sweet, for one moment, to be invincible. To stroll around quiet, sleeping villages in that light which is not dusk, not dawn, but somewhere exactly in between. Where meadow flowers still sing their sweet songs in the middle of the night, and the waters are calm and inviting. To relish in that moment, for which I persevere through 364 others to live and relive.

We sat in the deep, lush grass along the Hudson River, eating strawberries and speaking of life. Exhausted by the heat, I dug my face into the blanket, and it smelled of sweat and dirt and grass and summer. This is the life, we said, and it truly was. How blessed we are, to have survived another year, to have made it safely to this shore.