Summer is Here
by Betsy Toll
Summer is finally here, bursting with its long-awaited energy
of coming forth. Midsummer daylight lasts 16 hours in the middle
latitudes, brightening spirits and coaxing growth from early dawn
until late evening.
“... gardens are in full-swing, and berries ripen
almost before our very eyes, yet even the warmest days are
tamed and tempered by sweet cool nights.”
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Festivals and celebrations abound as summer moves on, farmland
and gardens are in full-swing, and berries ripen almost before
our very eyes, yet even the warmest days are tamed and tempered
by sweet cool nights. Rainy spring is behind us but the long, hot “dog
days” are still off in the future. Midsummer shines with
beauty and possibility.
Ripening
This delicious ripening and coming-forth finds Living Earth brimming
with creativity and fresh opportunity. The phase of transition we began
last summer is coming full circle and will bear fruit before this summer
wanes. How perfect that we have traveled a full turn around the sun since
we initiated, incubated, and began to nurture these seeds to shape a new
direction. Clarity, renewed purpose, and a fresh program focus will emerge
like corn coming up in the fields, ready to be shared before autumn sets
in.
Come celebrate!
The Living Earth Community is invited to celebrate summer and
hear what lies ahead at our Summer Community Gathering, Thursday
evening, July 19, 6:30-8:30 pm.
We’ll share a potluck picnic and good company amid the towering trees in Washington Park’s Hoyt Arboretum. Food, music, and friendship will be in good supply (bring musical instruments and potluck dishes!), and we will outline the new programs and opportunities for volunteer involvement. We’ll join hands in circle dances to end our celebration as the sun goes down.
Details and directions will be sent to our email list, but if you’d like more information or aren’t subscribed to the list, feel free to contact us by email or call 503-788-7311. And be sure to check back on the website to see what is on the calendar as summer makes its way toward fall.
Our Summer Community Gathering is scheduled on Thursday, July 19 in place of our monthly board meeting. Coincidentally, here are other causes for celebrations on July 19:
- The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott courageously proposed the radical possibility of women’s rights, began on July 19.
- On July 19, 1869, naturalist John Muir set pen to paper to capture his experience of awakening in the Sierra Nevada in his book, “My First Summer in the Sierra,” which inspired the awakening of environmental consciousness in the US.
- Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal was established on July 19, 1976, protecting the southern aspect of Mount Everest, known in Nepali by the beautiful name Sagarmatha, "Mother of the Universe."
Betsy Toll is Executive Director of Living Earth. Contact her at bt@LivingEarthGatherings.Org
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