Here, in the northern hemisphere, Tuesday (June 21st) will mark the summer solstice. (While our subscribers in the southern hemisphere will be experiencing their winter solstice.) The summer solstice represents the longest day of the year and marks the first day of summer. For many, it is a big day!
But when you stop and realize that it is simply the culmination of all of the previous days that have come before it since the winter solstice, it doesn't seem like such a big day. Don't get me wrong - I always look forward to the arrival of summer, but I am very conscious of the fact that the change of the seasons is a slow, gradual process and is not as dramatic as the flipping of a switch.
Tuesday June 21st, 2005 also represents the day that my book will be released! A big day indeed! The culmination of a lot of effort, joy, pain and satisfaction. (I've told my wife that writing and publishing a book is probably the closest that I'll ever come to giving birth!) But as I relax now and think about the book, I realize that the 21st isn't a magical day, but, much like the summer solstice, another phase in a cycle that was set in motion a long time ago.
If we think about our lives, we tend to remember the "big days": birthdays, weddings, funerals, graduations, new jobs, etc. But don't forget to stop and realize that each of those days merely represent a bright, beautiful tile in the large and wonderful mosaic that is our lives.
ENJOY NOW!
O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out
Against the wreckful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?
