Today is the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.
It’s a day that always makes me homesick for Fairbanks, Alaska—where I grew up— (known as the Land of the Midnight Sun) because this day comes with nonstop celebrating by people who cherish the sunlight that is their constant, but fleeting, summer companion. Starting tomorrow, the days will begin to shorten until darkness blankets Fairbanks for the winter much the way the nearly 24 hour sunlight shimmers over summer life.
I think I am feeling this homesickness even more this year because I have prioritized connecting with the rhythm of nature in the past year. I am much more attuned to what is happening with the seasons, with the moon and with the sun, and growing in my understanding of how to best align with these energies. This is hard to do living in a city, which makes me pine for places where life is more consciously connected to nature.