Dear Friends
Happy Summer Solstice! As you can read at the bottom of the Anchorage Almanac in our local paper above, we are enjoying 19 hours, 21 minutes and 7 seconds of daylight!
Before our community dinner tonight, I led the residents in singing
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
You make me happy when skies are gray,
You'll never know dear, how much I love you,
Please don't take my sunshine away"
Then, I asked the residents to vote on what activity they would like to do to celebrate, reading to them some of the actual events listed in today's Anchorage Daily News: (These are real...I'm not making them up)
Skydiving Boogie at the Anchorage Skydive Center
(Just $600 for 13 jump tickets...including glacier jumps, helicopter jumps and a midnight solstice jump)
Ski Jump-A-Thon (Sponsored by the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage, it goes all night)
Summer Solstice Ecstatic Dance Party (sponsored by Church of Love, for all ages, "a safe space to dance without talking, drinking or the nightclub vibe")
Baseball Under the Midnight Sun (A 113 year solstice tradition featuring 24 straight hours of baseball)
The Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon and Half Marathon (one of several races happening all over the state)
There was nervous laughter but no clear winner!
And finally I gave our cook a bag of "Sun Chips" to serve so, as he put it, "each person could have a piece of the sun."
Of course this special celestial day brings to my heart and mind so many scriptures and songs, too many to include here. But here is the scripture inspired refrain from one of our hymns that is one of my favorites:
In him there is no darkness at all,
The night and the day are both alike
The Lamb is the light of the city of God
Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.
Sunlight is one of the best disinfectants---light shining in dark places can reveal the truth and bring change. Whatever we are going through---individually (and as a country right now), may that sunlight prove to be an effective disinfectant and may our Son named Jesus bring us joy, hope and peace at the end.
John
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