Every year the sun climbs north from its lowest southern point, passing the equator at the equinox in March until it reaches it highest point in the northern sky at the summer solstice. Every day the sun gets higher in the northern sky it drives its energy deeper and deeper into the earth, but beginning at the solstice the earth slowly begins to radiate its stored energy back out as the power of the sun, now less direct, wanes as it heads south for the winter. In August, usually around the 16th, the amount of energy being radiated by the earth into the atmosphere is stronger than the energy being driven into the earth by the waning sun. I have always been sensitive to this interplay of energy and feel a very specific change in the radiation field at the instant this shift happens. I cant prove this, of course, but it is the same every year. I am not thinking about it all and then a subtle change in the atmosphere just happens, running straight through the center of my nervous system, creating a slight shudder in my body. Every year the same thing. The shudder is unique to this phenomenon, a very specific sensation that feels like nothing else I have every felt. But I was surprised to feel the shift happen today, a full week earlier than I have ever felt it before. Maybe because I am living farther north in California than I have ever lived before. A weeks worth of solar energy north, I guess. I guess my summer will be two weeks shorter here and my winter two weeks longer. Still, you know, its California. No reason to get out the crying towel.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 05:48:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015