I have a confession to make:
I hate summer.
And I don’t just mean it isn’t my favourite season. I mean, I loathe it. I spend the rest of the year dreading the heat, the sweaty-ness, the relentless sunshine, and plotting ways to avoid it. Inevitably, when it arrives, I spend most of my time hiding behind closed curtains and hovering over a fan. And yet, this is the absolute antithesis of everything Summer Solstice asks of us.
At it’s heart Solstice, bonfires and Stonehenge aside, is The Great Celebration of the Sun. It’s a joyous celebration of the light which makes everything suddenly come to life, all in a rush. In the garden, blooms appear on the blackberry bush, vine shoots drip fruit and beans, and herbs flower in their tubs. At midday, the trees have a hazy, mirage-like shimmer. Everything grows a mile a minute, stretching spindly arms up, up, to the azure blue of the sky.
Summer wasn’t always a chore for me. In fact, as a child, summer was second only to Christmas. I waited impatiently for school to end because summer meant long days lazing in the garden with my favourite books and riding my bike all over the neighbourhood. Cotton dresses and jelly shoes. Ice lollies and a week at the beach. What happened to that?
So, this year, for Solstice, I’m making myself a promise to recapture some of that summer magic. My tribute to the sun.
To-do list:
– watch those fiery summer sunsets as often as possible
– go to the beach as often as possible
– have a summer holiday
– wear cotton dresses
– read in the garden
– eat ice cream
– find out what else is magical about Summer
