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Thursday, June 17, 2010

Summer is Coming!!

Yahoo, summer is coming!! June 21st is a very important day for our planet and its relationship with the sun. June 21st is one of two solstice days when the rays of the sun directly strike one of the two tropical latitude lines. June 21st marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and at the same time heralds the beginning of winter in the southern hemisphere. Around December 21 the solstices are reversed and winter begins in the northern hemisphere.

You know it is summer because the Sun reaches its farthest point north for the year. It is at its highest in the sky at noon and the solstice shadows are very short. The higher the Sun rises in the heavens the more distance it has to travel from one horizon to the other and hence, the longer daylight. Which makes this is the longest day of the year, or so they say!

When summer occurs in a hemisphere, it is due to that hemisphere receiving more direct rays of the sun than the opposite hemisphere where it is winter. In winter, the sun's energy hits the earth at oblique angles and is thus less concentrated.

The first days of summer are a time most favoured for weeding the garden (the sap has risen to its highest point, and there is very little sap in the roots of plants). Since Sap is a life force we can also use this time to “weed” out old emotional patterns within ourselves as well as tending to the weeds in our gardens.

On the summer solstice, for many centuries people have done ritual traditions like Leaping over bonfires symbolizing leaving behind outmoded emotional patterns, stuck ways of thinking, addictions, sorrow, and the fire symbolizes the flames of passion which we are entering the new season with.

Take some time this year between June 20th and June 24th, (midsummer’s day) to do some type of ritual to pledge you to a year of growth, and passion, and joy. Summer brings us an energy that is about shifting perceptions and doing the work required to create the needed changes in our minds. Looking at what we can do to make our lives better, be the best we can be and perhaps even share and teach others this.

How do you do this? Less bad news; having fewer grumpy people around us; less thinking of what should or could have been. More laughter, more service with a smile, more connections with those who make you feel better inside and out. And of course the most important work of all with this time in our lives is the personal transformation we must make within ourselves. Thinking negative thoughts is normal, and the second that thought comes into our minds instead of feeding it, lets weed it out.


Lisa Emery, B.A. is currently living in Amherst. Lisa invites comments to her column. You can contact Lisa at: emeryvine@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/emeryvine, or view her blog at http://emeryvinegrapevine.blogspot.com

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