A Midsummer Night

Midsummer. When I saw the first few posts, I cringed. It cannot be midsummer already. I have too much on my lists yet to be accomplished. I cannot concede a half way point. Then I realized, we are half way between the equinoxes. That I can fathom. The truth is, I like the waning of the light in the second half of the year. Fall weather is my favorite. I like by October how evening comes early. I love the hours of darkness from November through February. I sleep more. I sleep more deeply. I feel more rested. I feel happier. 

Long days of daylight create the frenzy of work. I start sometimes at seven or seven-thirty. Always a break around five to feed the crew, but often, with Kim in New York especially, undertake another project from six until eight. Lazy days of summer? Ha!

Midsummer and also, almost, mid year. A time to take stock, particularly for those of us with reading challenges. How is our reading going? Will we make the goals we set out in late December or early January? I am having a good year of reading. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry. I am reading it all. Inhaling words and books and ideas. It is a lovely chaotic, challenging, inchoate mess. Could one ask for more from reading? For the first time though, I feel organized in WHAT I am reading and in the amount of time I dedicate to reading each week.

Last year, I realized the limited time we all have. I recognized that there are a finite number of books I will read in this life. I want to read the rights books. The books that I might love. The writers that I want to support. This realization lead to the great personal library reorganization project, to cogent lists, to my own GoodReads challenge. And now mid year I feel satisfied with my reading, my pace, my intentions, my outcomes.

It is good on a midsummer night to cast one’s eyes to something that brings satisfaction, pleasure, even glee. Let me be puckish: what brings you great satisfaction this midsummer night?

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