Sunny Birthday # 50

Yeah, today's the big day, June 20, 2008, my 50th birthday........I'm so excited, I can hardly contain myself !!

Speaking of containing.........I was quite a large container on my 34th birthday back in 1992, as this photo gives evidence of:

My dear, sweet children------who were ALWAYS just as angelic as they appear in this photo------had foraged in the ditch for a birthday bouquet of Prairie Phlox. I normally don't care much for posting current photos of people on my blog, but this one is so old and unreal, that all of us in it would be unrecognizable now, anyway. In particular, I no longer have the big, stylishly permed hairdo, and the very attractive oversized eyeglass frames......AND, my blimp belly magically disappeared less than 24 hours after this photo was taken. (By the way, I now also look MUCH younger.......yeah, right.)

That birthday in 1992 is probably one of my most memorable ones. That whole day long, it felt like I was in the early stages of labor........crampy backache and stomachache, and I couldn't find a comfortable position. All day, I kept thinking, "No, no.......please don't let me give birth on MY birthday! The poor child will have to go through life having the same birthday as his or her mother!! I don't wish that on anyone! (Right or wrong, that's what I was thinking that day, anyway.)

Well, midnight came, and June 21 rolled around, and I breathed a sigh of relief. At around 5 a.m., I was awakened by a huge kick from inside------my son evidently having had enough of being in a tight place------the waters broke, and off to the hospital we went, after Husband did cow chores, of course. Our son was born around 1 p.m. Thus, between he and I, our household has a good percentage of the "longest-days-of-the-year" covered by a family birthday! (That would be the summer solstice, of course......although, if any of you are reading from the Southern Hemisphere, then it would be your winter solstice.......right??)

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Today we will be chopping hay and blowing it into the silo and/or baling the hay. IF I could do exactly as I pleased on my birthday----- which I figure is every birthday celebrant's right, within reason------ I would go BY MYSELF to some scenic, peaceful spot like perhaps Pike's Peak at McGregor, on the high bluff over the Mississippi River, wander around and look at the Indian mounds, and soak in the view from the observation deck for awhile (and take some pictures!). Sigh.

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There are presently eight calendars in my house, and I did a poll of them yesterday. Six state that this year's summer solstice is June 20, and two of them say June 21, so I'm going to go with the former, meaning my 50th birthday lands on the summer solstice this year! COOL!

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Actually, earlier this week as I was raking hay on a hill near our farmstead, I suddenly recalled that on our county's elevation map, the field I was in is either the highest or second-highest area of elevation in the county. Now, granted, that's not really very impressive, since we're here in Iowa, where there's nothing remotely resembling mountains, anyway.......but, its a COOL fact about this farm!

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I was thinking then, that if I were an ancient person, I might build a monument-----like Stonehenge-----to the midsummer sun right there on that high spot in our field, where I could gaze out across many miles of rolling prairie. Then, yesterday, when I was waiting in the orthodontist's reception area for my son to get his mouth impressions done, I was tickled to, by coincidence, find a National Geographic Magazine that included an article about Stonehenge.

Theories about that mysterious place in England come and go. The article said that the Stonehenge site was first used ceremonially around 2500 B.C., and last used around 1500 B.C. That's a really long time, ago! (I wonder what biblical events were happening during that time period?) The large stones of Stonehenge, called "blue stones"-----because they appear blue when wet-----came from the Peseli Moutains, 250 miles to the east, in Wales, from a rough, stony, badland-like area. These rocks may have been considered sacred for some reason. The large stones were set into a formation called a "sarcen circle", made up of 30 worked stones, topped by lintels. Techniques from wood carpentry were used to fasten the stones together.

Stonehenge is aligned astronomically with the summer solstice sunlight, and might be connected in some ceremonial way to other "henges" in that area of England, forming possibly a large symbolic calendar on the landscape.

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The article mentioned that the following theories are being kicked around concerning the possible purpose of Stonehenge:

------Temple to the sun

------Temple to the moon

------Astronomical calendar

------City of ancestral dead

------Center of healing

------Stone representations of gods

------Symbol of status and power

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Were I to wish to build a somewhat similar-looking monument in our field, I could use hay bales for the construction, and call it "Hayhenge"! What do you say? Would anyone come and sit with me to watch the sunrise and sunset on the summer solstice? Not for religious reasons, not to worship the sun, but simply to observe a natural phenomenon, part of God's design of the world.

I think that ancient peoples were very observant of nature, much more so than we are today. We're taught about solstices and equinoxes in school, and we pretty much ignore them after that......at least, I know I did for many years. If we weren't taught about these seasonal sun rhythms, do you think we would even notice their occurrences?

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WISHING YOU A HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE!! HAVE FUN IN THE SUN!!

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(Posted at 6:20 on 6/20)