Summer Solstice

by Nina

“Life is an ever-rolling wheel

And every day is the right one.” —Mumon Gensen

For us in the northern hemisphere, today is the summer solstice. I don’t know about you, but I always have mixed feelings on this day. On one hand, the solstice heralds the beginning of summer, and summer in Northern California, with its cool foggy mornings and bright, warm afternoons, its sprawling vegetable gardens and blooming roses, jasmine and herbs, is my favorite season. 

White Wisteria by Michele Macartney-Filgate

But on the other hand, because the solstice is the longest day of the year, I also feel a twinge of regret that soon the days will become shorter and the year will begin to wane.

Shadows from a lingering sun

blur into dusk—
falling cherry petals
—Soko

And as I’m well into the second half of my life, I can’t help but take some time to consider my own mortality as well as that of people close to me. The losses I’ve already experienced. The losses that are certain to come. Then I turn back to my practice and the Bhagavad Gita.

This is true yoga: the unbinding

of the bonds of sorrow. Practice

this yoga with determination

and with a courageous heart.

—Bhagavad Gita, trans. by Stephen Mitchell