Ways to Absorb the Abundance of Summer Solstice
Slowly and Mindfully
This year, I’m not going to tell you all the ways to celebrate Summer Solstice as I usually do. Instead, I’m going to invite you not to celebrate at all.
Notice if you feel a sense of relief.
Summer is Calling
This weekend marks the Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere, the longest day of the year. Summer Solstice is the seasonal height of light, warmth and fullness. The big sun is shining at its most dramatic effort, beaming down on us with all its magnificence. The day is stretched out so long that it lingers into hours considered night when dinner is already done and you’re nearly ready for bed. Flowers are flowing over the edges of their containers in full bloom and the bees and butterflies are at their busiest humming and fluttering about.
Summer calendars are filling up quickly with plans. It’s hard to schedule anything around everyone’s travel. The days are so long they deserve to be stacked with activity and there is so much to do this time of year that you can’t do in any other season. Let’s tube down the river, climb the mountain, bike the trails, camp all weekend, barbeque with friends!
I’m already exhausted.
The Paradox of Abundance
Am I the only one that feels the pressures of summer? I’m wracked with FOMO. There are so many outdoor concerts I want to see and backpacking trips I want to take. Life is so full and amazing and yet, there’s no way I can do everything. I can only be in one place at a time. All the projects that need to get done (ahem, greenhouse extension), adventures to go on (We’ll be rafting the Grand Canyon next month, more on that later), and people I want to spend time with.
I get summer dread.
Yup. I absolutely love summer. I love being tan and wearing sandals and gardening and being outside all the time, but I have an underlying sense of fear that I can’t do it all. What if I waste it?
A Gentle Reframe
This year I turned fifty years old and the big 5-0 is the first time that I actually feel like time is catching up with me. It has given me a new perspective on life and what is truly important and it turns out that it isn’t anything I thought it was.
So, this year, I want to offer a new perspective on summer solstice. What if the invitation of summer isn’t to do more, but to feel more?
The human instinct to maximize productivity is not working in our favor. Most people are more stressed than ever and are checking off boxes in their bullet journals instead of enjoying the moment, waiting until they someday retire to finally relax.
Yet if we look at the natural world, we see that the flowers aren’t blooming large because they made an appointment or scheduled it into their calendar. They are blooming large because the sunshine is calling them to open up and sing. What would it feel like to unschedule an entire day and see what blooms? Even in summertime or especially in summertime when there is so much to do.
Today I was listening to a podcast and the host was talking about how she grew up poor and all her life wanted to make money. She finally manifested millions of dollars and now her only wish is to slow down, relax and have time for her family.
This is the great irony, we often work so hard just to relax, yet we can receive rest and pleasure at any time.
This reminds me of a story I read, most recently in the book Come Home to Yourself by Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati. In the story a businessman meets a fisherman who spends two hours each day fishing and then comes home and relaxes with his family in their modest home. The businessman is surprised by the fisherman’s lack of ambition. He explains to him that if he worked more, he could buy another boat, hire more people, sell more fish and make more money. The fisherman is confused and asks the businessman why he should do this? The businessman says it is so that the fisherman can work only a couple of hours a day and relax with his family the rest of the time.
This is how most of us live our lives. We are striving for something we already have right in front of us—peace, freedom, relaxation, security, and time with loved ones. These things come from within.
True abundance isn’t about doing more, it’s about being more—more in the moment, more in your body, more in your life.
Absorb Instead of Celebrate
So this year, I‘m not going to tell you all the ways to celebrate Summer Solstice as I usually do. Instead of celebrating the longest day of the year and all the abundance and joy it has to offer, I invite you to absorb it.
Instead of orchestrating a big ritual with all your friends and food and bonfires or going to the big festival with music and a multitude of events, how about lying down in some soft grass beside a body of water and staring up into the tree branches. Take a nap. Be present with what is all around you. Notice the abundance of nature, creativity, and love that you already have. Listen to the music of your world, the birds singing, the cars driving by on their way to thousands of different places.
Instead of ramping up for the summer season, slow down and take it all in. You can get more pleasure in one moment of mindful awareness than an entire weekend of festivities.
Ideas for Absorbing this Summer Solstice
Unschedule an entire day or afternoon to do nothing. Follow your bliss.
Turn your phone off for a few hours.
Lay down outside and watch the clouds change. Bonus if you fall asleep.
Enjoy your favorite fruit while swinging on a hammock or swing.
Visit a pool or lake or river or ocean and consider jumping in. Bonus if you don’t have a bathing suit.
Go to a beautiful scenic lookout at sunset and don’t photograph it.
Open all the windows in your home or car and let the warm breeze circulate and clear the air.
Notice an insect and watch it for a while to see what it does.
Walk aimlessly around your neighborhood.
Meet a friend for coffee and see where the day takes you.
Listen to this Summer Playlist. Bonus if you are inspired to dance.
May this message be your invitation to feel at ease with the abundance all around you. Take a deep breath and soak it up without feeling the need to do anything about it. Trust that you are abundant year-round. Trust that you are not missing out on anything. Trust that everything you need is already here. Trust that by doing less you are experiencing more.
Summer solstice is the pause after Mother Nature takes a deep inhale. Her lungs are full and nourished with life, love and bounty. Let’s all release our breath together, let it go completely and welcome in summer and all the coming seasons and their gifts. Blessed be.
