Good morning, friends! Tomorrow is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, and the official beginning of the summer season. We are halfway between the spring and autumn equinoxes. On those days, the days and nights are approximately the same length. But in this season, the sun is in our sky much longer than it is set. In the northernmost parts of the globe, it never sets at all, and is daylight for weeks on end! For most of us, though, it simply means longer, warmer days (and shorter nights). Today is the famed Midsummer’s Eve, then, and as we consider what this next season is, let’s also spend some time considering what this past season has held for us. Consider spending some time in a prayer of Examen with the past three months: what has this spring held for you? What were the gifts of this season? What were the hard things? As you hold the days and weeks, what moments shimmer for your attention? Name what have been the moments of light and the moments of darkness, for you in this past season. Thank God for the beauty, for the moments of consolation. Talk to God, too, about how you feel about the more desolate moments—the pain, the disconnect, the emotions that have been present. Choose just one or two moments to enter more deeply into (They may seem random to you at first! But consider what they hold, as far as what this past season has been for you and what God has been up to.). Do you sense any invitations coming out of them? On the cusp of entering summer, what are you carrying into it from spring? Wrap up this past season with attention, as you prepare to enter the new one.

Posted by Jamie Bonilla at 2022-06-20 14:49:16 UTC