On the one day when day and night have equal time, find your own harmony.
By LORI HILE From the June 2006 Issue
Life’s a Picnic in June Six delicious sites for your next picnic.
Boogie Nights The rhythm is gonna get you at Grant Park.
Crossing the Line The Newbery Award comes to a Michigan novelist.
No Room for the Inn? A proposed hotel in Indiana Dunes State Park prompts LAKE to ask for your opinion.
Lake Magazine covers the hottest information on the Lake Michigan area.
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With the sun at its northernmost point, summer’s official June 21 kick-off really is a big deal, eagerly anticipated if not always celebrated. And why not? In the winter, we live in fear of taking a nap, lest we squander one of our eight meager hours of sunlight.
In summer, with glows lingering as late as 11 p.m. along the western edge of the Eastern Time zone, daylight can last up to 16 hours — forcing us to literally “go to bed by day.” Well north of the equator (which enjoys equal parts day and night, year-round) in both latitude and attitude, the coast of Lake Michigan is the perfect place to honor the solstice.
On the day when the sun stays out extra-late to play, why shouldn't you, too?
But how best to celebrate our day in the sun? Derived from the Latin, “solstice” literally translates into “sun standing still,” and perhaps we’d do well to follow suit. Eleanor Boyer, a Chicagoan, vividly experiences the sun’s cycles at her Washington Island property, off the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan, where she observes her own solstice rituals. “The solstice is a great time to go out to the lakefront and free your mind of all the daily details of work and driving and traffic and talking on cell phones and computers, and really appreciate and enjoy the sense of being in nature,” Boyer says. “It definitely makes you feel different. I find that as those days get longer, I have more energy.”
L.A.-based acupuncturist and Chinese medicine practitioner Carolyn Cohen agrees, noting that summer is a time of extreme yang (or energy) — culminating on the day of the solstice. “What that means,” Cohen says, “is that we have the energy and desire to be more physically active. You need a little less sleep in summertime.” Cohen adds that the healthy emotional state in summer is joy and the sound is laughter, which makes the solstice a good time to “lighten up” and get together with friends.
“There’s always a question of balance,” she says. “You want to celebrate, want to experience joy and laughter, but you don’t want to deplete your resources.” So, maybe, in addition to meditating, celebrating over a bonfire with friends or plunging into Lake Michigan’s icy waters (the sun takes a couple months to fully warm the earth and water), you should finally take that catnap. After all, you’ve got daylight to squander — and while the solstice isn’t just another sunny day, it is just the first day of the rest of your summer.
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