A few days ago marked the summer Solstice, celebrated in some parts of the world as ”Midsummer;” in my native Denmark as”Skt. Hans” on June 23rd… all of which, of course, presumes that you are located in the northern hemisphere.
Danish Skt. Hans bonfire on the beach
Midsummer is actually an interesting idea that always struck me as a bit of a misnomer because it's actually the first day of summer not the middle of summer which happens in early August but hey, tradition is tradition, right?
Growing up, this was always one of my favorite times of the year. Granted, part of that was owing to the fact that school was now out for the summer and my time was pretty much my own… but growing up in the high north meant we would have these incredibly long and light days and hardly any night at all.
Even at its lowest point, the sun barely makes it 10 degrees below the horizon before it starts rising again, meaning that the northern sky is always golden, pink or pale blue even after midnight and if you look around there is still enough light that you can discern colors at midnight by natural light. I believe the scientific term is "astronomical dusk."
Although the Pacific Northwest — where we live now — is considered a long way north, the small town where I spent my summers in Denmark is actually about as far north as Ketchikan, Alaska... some 625 miles (1000km) north of here.
Even so, I find a lot of contentment in being able to look out of my window at 9:00 o'clock at night and it's still daylight even if not as strong as it was a couple of hours ago.
My parents were always lovers of the tropics, and many of the trips we took were to southern and exotic places, often near the equator. I never realized it at the time but part of what felt "wrong" about these places to me what's the fact that night and day were always equally long and the climate never seemed to change. Somehow it felt incorrect.
Ironically, I lived in Texas for many years, which is fairly far South — if you look on a map you'll find that Austin, TX (where I was) lies on about the same longitude as Cairo, Egypt. In spite of spending more than 20 years there, there were some ways in which it just never quite felt like home.
I used to spend a lot of time complaining about the climate, (remember, I really don't like hot weather), but as much as anything my complaint was really about the lack of seasons and perhaps missing those very long summer days… as well as the almost equally long winter nights which always felt perfect for nesting up in a warm place with a a favorite indoor hobby or interest.
For me, that was stamp collecting and jigsaw puzzles... both as a kid, and later as an adult... as well as reading lots and lots of books.
Because I felt so attuned to the rightness and wrongness of specific places, I spent a good deal of time studying what you might call ”the power of place.” I actually believed I was a bit of a freakazoid, but it turned out there is a whole field of study surrounding the Power of Place, along with some fairly scientific explanations for why some places feel "right" and other places feel "wrong" to us.
Even though I am neither particularly successful or accomplished here in our northern town, I feel a sort of root contentment at being here... simply walking outside and the air "looks" right, and the vegetation and trees "feel" right. Ultimately, it feels like a good life even if it is not a particularly wealthy one! Which perhaps also points to the fact that material wealth can only buy you so much and the remainder of this mysterious thing called happiness is largely dependent on how you feel about where you are and how you are. And you really can't place a monetary value on that.
The time is now approaching 10:30, and there is still a pale hue on the northern sky. Time for me to find some pictures to illustrate this post and get it on its merry way!
Thanks for reading, and have a marvelous weekend!
What do YOU think? Do some places feel more "right" than others? Or do you simply adapt to where you are? Is it related to where you grew up, or is it something different? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20220624 22:37 PDT
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