The month of July, named in honor of the family of Roman ruler Julius Caesar, was considered the point in the year when the sun was most potent. July “rules” in our summer perspective.
The ancient Saxons called July “Hey Monath,” because it was when they usually mowed and made their hay-harvest.
July greets us—body and soul—in the heart of sweet summertime, a hot but vibrant month. Summer’s extreme “dog days” are said to begin in early July and extend into August, based on folklore connected with the rising and setting of the star Canicula (or Sirius)—the Little Dog—in coincidence with the sun.
The soul too has its “dog days”—times when even the slightest effort toward self-care and discipline seems too much. But July’s sweltering days and lush landscapes also offer compensations.
“Summer afternoon,” Henry James said to Edith Wharton. “To me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
Poet William Blake suggests that we expand our vision, urging us to open our inner eyes to the beauty around us and thereby enlarge our souls:
To see the World in a grain of sand,
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
As a child, I was quite successful at living life fully, because I had not yet learned to live by the calendar. I lived by heart.
—Macrina Wiederkehr in The Circle of Life.
Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries.
—Corita Kent.
[Adapted from Seasons for the Soul by Isabel Anders.]
The sweep of months brings us finally to June, and the peak of summer’s glory.
It is claimed by some that summer doesn’t start until the elder is in flower. In fact, in the month of June, as many as a dozen species may burst forth from their buds on a single day.
“Come forth into the light of things,” wrote William Wordsworth, “let nature be your teacher.”
The longest day, the summer solstice, falls around June 21-22. Solstice comes from the Latin (sol, sun; sistit, stands). For several days before and after each solstice, the sun appears to stand still in the sky—that is, its noontime elevation does not seem to change.
In ancient times, people used to light fires at this time, when the days began growing shorter—in an attempt to “strengthen” the sun. Similarly, we may be tempted to try to hold on to summer’s ease.
But fairer or darker, colder or milder, all days in the year say the same thing to the soul: Breathe in life, and give thanks to the Giver.
In June our spirits exult in the sights and senses around us. They “feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights” wrote the Psalmist (Psalm 36:8).
Carlo Caretto wrote in his Letters in the Desert: “By spirituality, we mean the way of thinking, living, and sanctifying the acts of our lives.” June says to us: The time to dance in our spirits is now.
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing that you will make one.
—Ellen Hubbard.
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
