It is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, or the shortest night.
And I am feeling it!
In my area, the sun rose at 3.41am and set at 11.11pm. And even though it has set over an hour and a half ago, there is still a fair amount of light in the sky as the sun is there lurking, just below the horizon and will be up again a little later - at 3.42am.
For a graphical representation:
So you can see that for a bout four weeks in the middle, we are in "civil twilight" - which I guess means that it is light enough for people to recognize you on the streets, so you have to be civil, just in case.
Or;
Civil Twilight:
Begins in the morning, or ends in the evening, when the geometric center of the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. Therefore morning civil twilight begins when the geometric center of the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon, and ends at sunrise.
Probably the second one.
You can see in the bar along the bottom that it doesn't really get close to dark at this time of year.
But, I am feeling it at the moment, and I am not the only one around here. It seems that with holidays just around the corner, people are starting to checkout a little early. I think it is partly due to the higher than normal workloads, people are less social and of course, there is a lot more going on in the world that is sapping our energy.
I am fading.
While I have a lot on my plate at the moment still, the spark in me is dying quickly and the motivation ebbing away. I keep telling myself... almost there, but it is having little effect. I Really want to stay engaged though, because this quarter is going to be short (month holiday in the middle) but in order to get my full bonus, I still have a lot of things to organize and that requires engaging with people globally, most of whom will also be taking holidays.
In Finland, most people take them somewhere between the end of June to mid-August, but southern Europe take theirs around a month later. I have people spread all the way through Europe and several in the US I will have to engage collaborate with also. It takes a lot of organization and I just don't know if I have it in me, yet I really don't want to miss out on my quarter bonus, because it is a significant boost, especially after travelling for a week in the summer.
Sweet bonus.
I like the change made a couple years ago to a quarterly bonus, especially since I am earning a bit more than then and if I hit all of the targets, it adds about 15% to my yearly income. Since I didn't get a pay rise this year, it is even more important that I hit it, with inflation running rampant on pretty much everything I need to buy, or want to buy.
Finnish inflation rate:
I call bullshit.
I don't know what they use to calculate the inflation rate, but everything I buy has definitely gone up by more than 9.1%, with a lot going up more than 50%, whilst "shrinkflation" reduces the amount in the packets, which means extra needs to be bought. It is like buying a carton of a dozen eggs, but only having eight in there. They say it is about "keeping costs down" but it isn't, it is about increasing profits.
All of these things have an effect on our daily experience and if you and I are feeling the ese pressures in some way, others are too. This means that we are surrounded by people who are in some state of struggle all the time and we compound against each other, to affect the general community disposition.
For instance, I have friends who are driving their kids around to various sporting activities, which are already expensive, and then they are having to outlay even more to cover the equipment and travel costs, without more salary. So, I see it when they talk about their weekend, that some are a little stressed.
Do they take their kids out of a sport the child enjoys, because they can't afford it?
That is a difficult call for most parents.
Like it or not, money is a massive part of our wellbeing and as a parent, I do feel it when I have to think about what opportunities for which I am willing and able to pay. For example, I would like Smallsteps to learn how to play the piano, but lessons are insanely expensive here, and we just can't justify spending that kind of money on it. However, we have a piano in the house, so I am teaching her to play myself, even though I can't play at all. Instead, I am using an online beginners tutorial course to do the teaching and I am there supporting her through it. It is fun for us both, but it is very limited how far we can go this way. Foundation is important though and perhaps, if I pay attention, I am able to giver her a chance to build some foundation - at least keep her enthusiastic.
Yesterday, I was talking to a colleague about the midsummer holiday (Friday is a day off), and she was saying how she doesn't have blockout curtains on her kids windows for the summer, like many people have. Her reasoning (the same as mine) is that if kids learn to only sleep in the dark, they will always struggle to sleep if there is a bit of light. That makes sleeping anywhere other than at home difficult in Finland.
I have the same thing about the "shhh, the baby's sleeping" mentality, because if kids learn to sleep only in silence, they will struggle with even the slightest noises. As the houses are so well insulated here, when there is noise, a lot of Finns can't sleep.
Smallsteps sleeps through anything.
Of course, humans are adaptable and over time we can get used to pretty much anything, but when the world is always changing, we tend to struggle, because there is no consistency, no anchor. The world is becoming more volatile in many ways and although we can say and even believe we are okay with change, the fact is that we all have our limits. We are all affected in some way by the shifts in the world and even when we think we are handling it well, other people might notice the change in us, because they themselves are feeling it and are paying attention to their surroundings, wondering if they are the only ones struggling.
Life is sometimes like those difficult math exams I had at school. In the part of the test, everyone would be frantically writing, including me. but pretty soon, I would be looking at the page, have no answers for the questions, and be looking around to see if I was the only one not writing. There were usually one or two others in the same boat as me, but as time went on, more and more would be looking up from the paper to see if they were the only ones struggling too. By then though, the group was quite large.
We all have resiliency built into us, but the level varies greatly. Some finish the test far earlier than others. But just like that math test, if we apply ourselves, we will likely improve our ability and be able to answer more of the questions that life throws at us. If the pressure continues though, eventually, we all fade.
While this is the longest day of the year. It is also the shortest night. Which side is important depends on perspective.
I should go to bed - the sun will be up soon.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
