Sunrise before Solstice

Summer, warm... Yeah, right.

From Theresa:
As hot as it's been lately, it's still cold at 4 am when you get up to watch the Sun rise on the day before the Summer Solstice. The thermometer said 58 degrees, so we went back inside to get warmer clothes. Bear even wore his wool hat... He says: the alarm went off at my usual time, but I didn't get to hit the snooze 4 times before getting out of bed. The birds were much more awake than I was.

The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year, when we celebrate the amazing. life giving power of the Sun. There's rain in tomorrow's forecast, so we decided to watch the Sun rise today, in case we couldn't greet Him properly tomorrow...

We sat at the campfire pit in our backyard and watched the Sun's light slowly brighten the sky:

By 5:00 am the we were still waiting for the Sun to float above the horizon...
so Bear made us breakfast- beans, veggies, eggs, toast.
I know he loves me because he gave me the last egg:

By 5:30 it was light and the Sun had appeared,
​but all we could see was a bright dot through the trees:

We found that the view was much better from a different corner of our property:

​Before the dawn,
still captured in the 
hush of night,
I hear the rush of wings.

Is it just the wind
or have You come to me?

In the darkness I wait,
caught in the tension
of the moment,
between night and day;
hope and trepidation.

I have longed for You
for so long...
gently, a feather drifts
past my face.

I arise and take Your hand.

- Galen Gillotte
Book of Hours: Prayers to the God

Tomorrow on Solstice morning, we'll be at Blue Mounds State Park watching the Sun
​rise from the East Observation Tower, where it looked like this in 2014:

See more on our Celebrate Early Summer page.

HAPPY SOLSTICE!