Solstice and Getting Along With/On The Earth

How I celebrated the longest day of the year: saw a lovely almost full moon. Chatted with the many fine minds that gather at Eschaton. Explored news and blogs and found many interesting things. Just realized that I should have been at Stonehenge.

More than 30,000 summer solstice revellers refused to let a chilly, wet morning dampen their spirits as they welcomed the longest day of the year.

It was the biggest turnout for five years at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, where dawn broke at 4.58am and was met by a large cheer from the gathered crowd.

Thousands arrived at the world-famous stone circle overnight, despite rain falling in Wiltshire, and gathered at the Heel stone.
(snip)
The solstice, also known as the pagan festival of Litha, attracts people from across the country and has been celebrated for centuries.

Stonehenge was constructed so the rising sun only reached the middle of the stones for just one day of the year.

Pagans believe the summer solstice marks the marriage between the sun and the earth. In astronomical terms, it marks the day when the planet is most tilted towards the sun and produces the longest period of daylight of the year in the northern hemisphere.

This is a festival that a lot of people along the Big Muddy (the Mississippi River to those of you who didn't have some one in the family that farmed at its mercy) may not fully appreciate this year. Being in closer touch with our earth would likely much improve the way we approach it. I will go pick some homegrown lettuce and tomatoes from my garden, and have a nice salad for the event. I keep hearing of the amount of lost crops, and doubt many will be glad for the alluvial benefits of soil washing down the river. After the flood years there used to be several years of bumper crops, so traditional farmers didn't feel so afflicted as today's farmers seem to.

I saw while on vacation that a New England food bank has asked gardeners to plant an extra row for the needy, and donate it. Am working on that. And sounds like a good idea that all of us who till our own might think about.

There will be an awful lot of needy and hungry this year. Insurance companies who failed to reimburse those who lost homes in Katrina are hardly likely to be any easier on this year's crop. Our system is broken in a lot of ways.