Thank you for joining me here for this quiet little conversation, taking a moment to be with these thoughts, words and images.

summer days next to the sea the bright sun easing its way in to twilight on solitary beaches the surface of the ocean changing from brilliant blue to deepening grays into midnight blue the water always in motion the sands sifting in and out with each incoming and outgoing wave

For years I thought summer days always got longer and longer until just before the end of August. Somehow it escaped me that the summer solstice was actually June 21, that day where we experience the most hours of daylight in the whole year, the longest day of the year. From here, the days grow shorter and shorter until the process reverses again on the December 21 winter solstice .

I have a friend who is extremely affected by the grey dreariness that is our fall and winter here on the southwest coast of Canada - one of his strategies to endure the season is to look at a chart showing the sun rise and sun set. It helps him to know when the days would begin to lengthen again.

The chart is so cool - in addition to showing sun rise and sun set, it also reveals all these lovely flavours of twilight. I love how every day is encompassed by the city people twilight (civic), the ocean people twilight (nautical), and the star gazer people twilight (astronomical). In December and January each year I find myself turning to this page more frequently as I too long for the light to return. 

For now I'm enjoying the late evening light and the thought that out there on the ocean the nautical twilight follows the city twilight where I live as sure as night follows day.

And as always, I want to express my gratitude to be living and working on the ancestral & unceded territories of the hən̓̓qəmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples.I honour the incredible depths of grace, courage and perseverance of Indigenous Peoples.

until next time,

Mardell