Summer, Sun, Sex and Basketball

Today we celebrate the summer solstice. The longest day; the shortest night. The height of summer.

In the west, this is known as "the first day of summer," but actually summer has been going on for at least a month; we are halfway through!!

This is the time when the universe is in love with all of us: we co-mingle our fluids by sweating and swimming. We take in the warmth of the season by going naked in the sun (or at least as naked as the law will allow.) It is a time of full expansion—of the light and of our energy. If we don't get enough sun and warmth in this season, we will suffer in cold of winter. We store the warmth in our bones.

The season of Fire (summer) is at the apex of the year. Imagine one of those incredibly graceful professional basketball players who glide across the court and leap into the air, positioning for a dunk. At the top of the arc, he seems to pause—freeze in place—as he suspends himself in the air in order to land the ball in the bucket. It seems like magic, that pause. The apex of the arc is characterized by stillness, that moment of suspended animation.

In the tai chi symbol, there is the upward white wave next to the downward black wave. At this moment we are at the exact top of the circle, where there is a little black dot in the white side of the wave. That little black dot is the seed of winter which gets planted today. It is the "seed of the opposite." The ancients slowed activity on the day after the summer solstice to symbolically sow the seed of winter: to recognize in thought and action that the days are now getting shorter.

So tomorrow, pause for a period of time, suspend your animation. Then resume your celebration of summer. Sweat, swim, bond with the universe, and maybe play some basketball.