On Friday, December 22, 2023, at 2:27 PM (Eastern Australia Time),
the southern hemisphere will experience the Summer Solstice,
that moment in time of ultimate light. 
With this short reflection,
I send a prayer of blessing to you all in that sacred moment.

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(Photo by Norexy_art on Pixabay)

Ah, the perfect summer night… the kind you remember from when you were a kid:

• cool enough to run for hours without being laden with sweat and exhaustion…
• the long summer light lingering until almost 9:00 P.M.…
• the jingle of the ice cream truck tantalizing in the distance….
   
  If only such nights could last forever. But like childhood, such a summer night simply does not last.
   
  The challenge is this: can we retain its spirit in the heat or chill of the days that follow. In the long summer of our adult responsibilities and choices, can we call up the heart of a child?
   
  I remember one June Saturday many years ago. I sat by my open window across the street from Mercy Hospital. The street outside bustled with the sounds of the busy inner city. Inside, my mind bustled with all the work I had to accomplish in the short weekend.
   
  Suddenly, like gentle bells amid noise, the laughter of children threaded itself into my seriousness. Their roller skates softly clacked across the hard concrete of my sidewalk and my awareness. I thought to myself, “When was the last time you experienced pure, childlike joy and freedom? — AND what are you going to do about it?”
   
  There are a good many tender summer nights left in 2023. Turn the TV off and go out to your patio or your front step. Play with your children. Listen for the ice cream man. Sit on the porch with someone you love and just talk. Or sit alone in the grateful stillness with our Creator Whose best gift to us is joyful freedom – Whose own playful heart created the zebra, the giraffe, the flamingo, the kangaroo … and, yes, even us 🙂
   
  We know all too well that we were created to work. Let’s remind ourselves that we were also created to play with the simplicity and sincerity of our remembered childhood.

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Music: Song for Summer Solstice – Libby Roderick

Daylight comes and nighttime goes, nighttime falls, day flies
Round and round the cycle goes, we live and then we die and then we live and then we die.
The seasons of my life go round, the sunshine and the rain
The fallow and the fruitful days, the joy and then the pain and then the joy and then the pain.
As light below, so light above, so light in all we see

The light is in the act of love, the light that sets us free, yes, it’s the light that sets free.
Daylight comes…