Kirkepiscatoid

Psalm 104 couldn't be more accurate. The sun knows its time for setting, and it's the time of year where it's a looooong way from the dawn! About six months ago I posted my dashboard widget on the shortest day of the year; it only seems fair to give the longest day of the year tomorrow some credit!

I don't know about you, but even with all this day, it seems like it is never enough. Summer is a time that I tend to feel refreshed, energized, and with a need to fill the daylight with as much as I can pack into it. I stay up late and wake up early. For me, winter is for reflecting, summer is for doing. But even then, there is a "time is fleeting" quality to it. The first part of Ecclesiastes 1 comes to mind:

1The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. ²Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. ³What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?

⁴A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. ⁵The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises. ⁶The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. ⁷All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they continue to flow. ⁸All things are wearisome; more than one can express; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing.

⁹What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun. ¹⁰Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has already been, in the ages before us. ¹¹The people of long ago are not remembered, nor will there be any remembrance of people yet to come by those who come after them.

The sun hurries to the place where it rises, and I hurry to my next task. I grow tanner and fitter every summer, but with each summer, my hair becomes more salt than pepper, another line shows up in the beginnings of my crows' feet, and I realized that although summer makes me feel young and fit, in reality I'm middle aged and "pretty fit for middle aged." My summers seem a lot more filled with "screening exams" and fasting lipid panels, fasting blood glucose levels, and things like that than they used to be.

There is a part of me that says, "Enjoy these long days; enjoy my friends and loved ones; enjoy it all. But remember that this is temporary." I wonder: Will these days be as long and full when I'm 60? 70? 80? I hope so. But God gives us the long days of summer to bask in the light, and the dark days of winter to curl up and reflect. I plan to use mine to the fullest.