A Few Thoughts on These Post-Solstice Days

When we think back to the Winter Solstice or even the Spring Equinox with the bleakness and darkness of the countryside then, we would have found it a great stretch of the imagination to visualise what we are now in the midst of – the profusion of colour, the swiftness of growth, variety of sounds, plethora of scents and first intimations of a ripening harvest. It all moves us to join our ancestors in acknowledging the great Sun as it unceasingly engages in its elegant dance with Earth, Air and Water.

That journey from Solstice to Solstice has been full of surprises. The first little shoots drawn up by the heat and light of the Sun, making their way from the darkness to the light. Then the first colour of the season with the first flower – luring out the first pollinators. Since then literally each day a new flower opens up to the Sun – yesterday it was the first Meadow Sweet in the wildlife garden. Today it is the first cultivated Sweet Pea and Budliea blossom. The birds providing the sound-track to all of this with their variety of song – thrushes, blackbirds, wrens, robins, tits, blackcaps, finches, tree-creepers, dunnocks, sparrows, crows, pigeons… Their journey from the collecting of nest material, the chirping of the little fledglings, the frantic calls of parent birds, if they sense a threat to their little babies. The backdrop of the humming of the busy bees continues as they relish the pollen and nectar of their favourite blossoms.

This time has also been known as the ‘first harvest’. We have new fresh vegetables coming in each day. In Ireland the first new potatoes are a special occasion for celebration.

How often do we hear these days that time moves fast? Nature’s time is cyclical. It follows the journey of the sun. Since the Industrial Revolution we humans have been living in linear time - straight line time! Linear time is out of synchronicity with Nature’s time. We wonder if living in cyclical time slows down the experience of pace. But this is not easy as our society is ordered around linear/clock time. I am reminded of this each day as I stand in the beautiful sun-dial created by Joe. Something to meditate on as we journey on with the Sun.