The long day

The most bearable part of winter is that the days start getting longer. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year — sunrise around 7:30 a.m., sunset around 4:15 p.m. in this neck of the woods. As dark and as cold and snowy as it can be, the one constant of winter is that we gain a minute or two of daylight every day, so even as we descend into the cold we literally see more light every day.

The best part of spring is reaching toward this glorious longest day of the year, the first day of summer, when the darkness is as vanquished as it ever will be. The most bittersweet part of summer is that for all the sunshine and warmth, we start losing a little bit of daylight, a minute or two at a time.

“It’s the four seasons,” we like to say, and I would rather have all four than to be somewhere where it’s the same all the time. On the other hand, being sunny and warm almost all the time doesn’t seem so bad anymore.

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You can read my new book Full within seconds by buying the ebook, or within a week or so via print-on-demand.

Published by WarrenBluhm

Wordsmith and podcaster, Warren is a reporter, editor and storyteller who lives near the shores of Green Bay with his wife, two golden retrievers, Dejah and Summer, and Blackberry, an insistent cat. Author of It's Going to Be All Right, Echoes of Freedom Past, Full, Refuse to be Afraid, Gladness is Infectious, 24 flashes, How to Play a Blue Guitar, Myke Phoenix: The Complete Novelettes, A Bridge at Crossroads, The Imaginary Bomb, A Scream of Consciousness, and The Imaginary Revolution.

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