Light Up: Reflections on the Summer Solstice

Like most days, I start the day by scanning email on my phone before I even get out of bed. Today, I was delighted to find that my friend, Hope Horton had shared her summer solstice reflections:

“The Summer Solstice reveals the sun in all her glory in the northern hemisphere. She will never be higher in the sky nor grant more daylight than at the moment she stills above the Tropic of Cancer, just before earth’s angling pushes her south to her winter rendezvous with the Tropic of Capricorn. This is the range of expression of life on earth. Everything that has evolved over billions of years comes alive, creates, and expires within this measured frame. Without the sun (at its precise distance from us) there would be no life on earth. Without the tilt of our axis, there would be no seasons. These are the cosmic truths within which we have our life, our breath, our being. All that occurs within the course of a year is but an outworking of this relationship with the light of life. Her waxing warms the leaf out of its winter home in spring, her fullness swells the fruits of summer, and her waning drains the grass of its green in the fall. July’s melon becomes January’s frozen turf, light gone dark by its dying only to shape-shift as spring disposes come March or May.”

Before reading any further I knew I needed to be outside in order to fully connect to the meaning of the words being shared. I needed to sit in the morning light, with my bare feet on the surface of the earth, and allow myself to appreciate the sacred relationship that all life has with the light of the sun.

In the past weeks there has been so much darkness, fear, and pain cast upon humanities morally righteous paths that we have been getting through each day with heavy hearts, often not sure of what occurrence will bring the next sorrow. It is our faith that guides us through these times, grounded in love and hope, and today, especially today, we must practice our call to Care for Creation by honoring the summer solstice, a highly spiritual time.

As I grounded myself in my backyard to finish reading the rest of my friend’s email I thought about Jesus as the divine Son, born in the winter solstice, died and resurrected at the spring equinox, and how the summer solstice represents the ascension. This brought me comfort and healing to my broken heart, knowing that God loves us and that the summer solstice is a time to celebrate the light of consciousness within ourselves and to reflect upon the potential for consciousness to awaken.

My skin began to warm as I sat on my back deck with my feet touching the earth and my spirit grew stronger as I read the last paragraph of Hope’s message:

“The sun deserves our most profound and total gratitude for the fact of our continued existence on this blue dot. But life does not come with a promise or a guarantee for more. Whatever matters most to you this Solstice season, start now by saying thank you for this day. Then feel it all light up.”

Read Hope Horton’s full blog here: Light Up – Reflections on the Summer Solstice.