Bring Me the Sunlight

I have always loved the long days of Summer, for lots of reasons but especially because of the sunlight, which seems abundant, as if the days are actually longer and I needn’t rush to get things done.  In 2014, I travelled to Scandinavia in June, at the height of Summer solstice, when sunlight lingers for more than 18 hours.  I loved it, and so did the locals, who seemed to celebrate the light on a whole new level.  I realized that 18 hours of sunlight was their well-earned reward for Winter days with barely 6 hours of sun.  There I was in a Scandinavian June, soaking in sunlight I had hardly earned.  I should have felt guilty but instead I turned my face to the light.  This picture was made at 2 am on the Baltic Sea. 

This photo of my mom and a chubby-cheeked JT was made at 10 pm at Catherine the Great’s Winter Palace outside of St. Petersburg, Russia.  The second was made after our tour, at just past midnight. This is just one corner of the palace, by the way.  Catherine didn’t live modestly.

Since that experience, I’ve been even more aware of the sunlight in my corner of the world.  We'll never have 18 hours between sunrise and sunset, but today is a day worth marking on our journey to the June solstice.  Today, we will achieve 12 hours of light.  Moving forward, we’ll have two to three extra minutes of sunlight every day from now until the Summer solstice in June.  That’s plenty of time to soak up the light.