Author Topic: How are you spending the summer solstice?  (Read 314809 times)

Offline Front-Ranger

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 30,266
  • Brokeback got us good.
Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
« Reply #40 on: June 20, 2011, 04:18:28 pm »
The Solstice is at 17:16 UTC on June 21...so it's coming right up!!
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline Shakesthecoffecan

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 9,566
  • Those were the days, Alberta 2007.
Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
« Reply #41 on: June 20, 2011, 04:36:18 pm »
As long as Happy Tussling does not involve Nelson Rockefeller's widow, I am all for it.

"It was only you in my life, and it will always be only you, Jack, I swear."

Offline Front-Ranger

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 30,266
  • Brokeback got us good.
Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
« Reply #42 on: June 20, 2011, 04:50:54 pm »
I assure you that Happy Rockerfeller was the furthest thing from my mind! So, put your money where your mouth (fingers) are, and vote!!
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline Lynne

  • BetterMost Supporter
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 9,291
  • "The world's always ending." --Ianto Jones
    • Elizabeth Warren for Massachusetts
Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
« Reply #43 on: June 20, 2011, 04:55:24 pm »
Thank you for bumping this old thread.  I went back and read it from the beginning, and Alec's post once again was so poignant.  I recommend it to everyone.

What to do tomorrow...

??
"Laß sein. Laß sein."

Offline Front-Ranger

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 30,266
  • Brokeback got us good.
Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
« Reply #44 on: June 20, 2011, 05:20:30 pm »
Yup, Lynne. It bears repeating!

OK, you asked... and for some reason, I feel safe in responding.

I'm reflecting on the fact that it was 5 years ago this morning that a true soulmate of mine finished her 4-year battle with cancer and closed her tortured eyes for the last time as I held her.  Not trying to be melodramatic here, just reporting the facts.  There was not a dull moment in her 37 years.  Mary was one of the world's most passionate, energetic, caring people.  She loved her life, her partner and their son, her friends, the needy children in whose lives she worked tirelessly, her pets, and her rugby games.  Her last words, slurred when she momentarily and partially stirred from her coma, were "Help me live." 

What a gorgeous gift Mary gave me by asking me to walk her last earthbound miles with her ... & darn it all if I didn't get good with the morphine pump in the process!  Standing by her side, I faced the loss I feared every day in between her diagnosis and her death and came out stronger on the other side.  And since she was too g*ddamn special to be buried in the family plot, we made sure that her ashes reached her shaded church yard, crystalline Alaskan waters, and a sunny patch of the Amazon River.  I like to think that the sun hangs in the summer solstice sky just a few moments longer than it used to, since Mary is there to hold it up.

I continue to learn from the lessons of that period of my life.  Mary truly changed my life forever, and I am grateful.  I feel her energy around me all the time.

We rode it, Mary, as long as we could.  I love you.


"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,154
  • "He somebody you cowboy'd with?"
Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
« Reply #45 on: June 21, 2011, 08:53:04 am »
I think I'll be celebrating by simply trying to stay awake.  :(  I always feel these ancient "quarter days" (the equnioxes and the solstices) should be celebrated, but today seems to be not a good day. I'm very tired this morning and feeling a little stuffy and "funny" in my head. I think perhaps it may be that we have bad weather coming.  :(

Oh, yeah. I think the "quarter days" should be celebrated as a reminder to us modern, urban types, that we're still a part of the natural order. It's also a connection to our ancestors in the deep past of humanity.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Front-Ranger

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 30,266
  • Brokeback got us good.
Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
« Reply #46 on: June 21, 2011, 09:46:51 am »
I had quite a night meeself. We are drying out after a full night of rain on Sunday, and I woke up with wet stuff coming out of my eyes. It felt good to have a good cry, even though most of it I did while I was asleep. Don't know if I was crying for Rodney, for other loved ones, for opportunities passed up or just for the world in general, but I feel better now. Less bottled up.

I also had two dreams, both of which are reoccurring. In the first, I was in the lobby of my college dorm room where the mailboxes are. I wanted to get into the mailbox and then go upstairs to my room, but I had lost the key to both, so I just went away. In the second dream, I got up the courage to go into the pool room of my dream home, the one I've told you about many times. I had neglected the pool room for months if not years, and I knew it was a big mess of rotted and dead plants. But when I walked in, I was amazed that everything was fine. The plants were healthy and there was even an orchid blooming. It was spotlessly clean and the water shimmered with reflected sunlight. It was cool and humid and lovely. Someone has been taking care of that grotto for me all this time. And that someone is...another aspect of me!  :)
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline delalluvia

  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 8,289
  • "Truth is an iron bride"
Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
« Reply #47 on: June 21, 2011, 11:27:34 am »
Great start to this day.  After a series of scorching hot days 104 degrees on a couple.  The temperature dropped  10 degrees this morning and it thunderstormed.  Lightning and rain that came down for several hours.

Even the ground is sighing in relief.  The birds are ecstatic and the plants perky and plump with water.

Tonight - picnic dinner, candles the household gods and the movie "Midsummer Night's Dream".  My traditional midsummer's day celebration.

Offline Penthesilea

  • Town Administration
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,745
Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
« Reply #48 on: June 21, 2011, 12:10:26 pm »
Not to rain on everybody's parade, but I always try my very best to ignore summer solstice.
I know it's the official beginning of summer, but my personal measure tape for summer is the question whether it's warm enough to go to the pool. Which is mostly three or four weeks before summer 'officially' begins.

Summer solstice to me means the days already start to get shorter again. :P I don't want that!
I love winter solstice for the same reason.


Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,154
  • "He somebody you cowboy'd with?"
Re: How are you spending the summer solstice?
« Reply #49 on: June 21, 2011, 12:14:59 pm »
Summer solstice to me means the days already start to get shorter again.

That's always in the back of my mind, too. Adds a little poignancy to the observance for me.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.