What will happen on this first day of Summer called Summer Solstice? In the Northern Hemisphere, summer solstice begins at 1:16 P.M. EDT. In the UK it will be 17:16 UTC.
Sol + stice derives from a combination of Latin words meaning, "sun" + "to stand still." As the days lengthen, the sun rises higher and higher until it seems to stand still in the sky. As a major celestial event, the Summer Solstice results in the longest day and the shortest night of the year. This has always interest me and I wonder how many people even stop and think of what happens on this day. Amazingly, God put all this together…Wow!!!
To jump start our Summer lets think of what it means personally to us. So what does summertime mean to you? Can you go back in your memory bank and draw out good things you cherish? I can! Here are a few of mine that make me feel good reviewing times of the past.....
• As a little girl I remember sitting on our front porch, the neighbors would gather after their workday until late unto the evening. You could listen to them discuss anything from “birthing babies to nuclear war” and they never figured it out.
• Listening to the oscillating fan at the foot of my bed made me sleep so well. The hum would put me to sleep, until daddy would come in and turn it off. "Had to keep the electric bill from going sky high", he would say. It would make me so mad but I knew I mustn't challenge him on it.
• I got excited when on a Saturday morning daddy would remove the inside of the windows from our kitchen windows for the summer. He would store them away until the first cool day in late Fall getting ready for winter to return.... again.
• Mama hung the clothes on the clothesline after she had washed them in her winger washing machine .........
..............and I knew when she was finished with the three rows I could run through them feeling it’s coolness as they dried in the wind.
• Waking up the morning of May 1st, that was the day mama would declare we could now go barefooted.
• I remember hurrying through my Saturday chores, because I knew when I finished I could go outside and play.
• I can smell the barbeque pit slow cooking a roast all the day on a Saturday for us to enjoy that evening as we gathered around as family. Wasn't funny though, when one time we looked at our dog Fido running down the yard with that roast in his mouth. He was in trouble! I wonder now if we had that meat that night? Never thought about that as a kid and I don't want to go there now.....
• Just the thought of walking to the swimming pool a mile away with my best friend makes me feel happy. I can smell the chlorine and hear the sounds of the screams as they splashed in the water.
• I can taste it now, Watermelon. I can hear mother say, “spread out the newspaper on this picnic table here”, then daddy would cut into a ripe one, you could hear the split. I couldn’t wait to be first to go for the sweetest part, the middle without seeds. I can feel the juice of that sweet taste running down my chin right now…
So what are your memories? I wished you were here on my porch with me rocking and laughing while we talked about your summertime past. We could enjoy a big glass of sweet Iced Tea waiting on that special day that starts it off...AHH SUMMERTIME! Let’s close our eyes and pretend….OK?
I like it! It made me long for those days plus the ones we reminisced about today....
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