Chiaroscuro

Happy Summer Solstice! It is June 21st--the longest day of the year. Before moving to Washington State, I didn't even know what the Summer Solstice was. In Texas, the days get longer in the summer and shorter in the winter, but not quite to the degree we see in Washington.

Here, on the longest day of the year, the birds start chirping at 4:00 a.m. and the sun is still setting at 9:45! And in the winter, on the shortest day of the year, we are lucky to get 8 hours of daylight. This swing between day and night is even more exaggerated in Alaska and places further north.

On the darkest day of winter, December 21st, we gather for a "Longest Night Service." We talk a lot about the light of Christ coming into a dark world. And from the darkest days of winters, you would think that the really long days are a welcomed thing. But sometimes I feel like all this sunlight is too much. Can you have such a thing as too much sunlight??

I am reminded of an art term that a picked up some years ago, Chiaroscuro, which is the interplay of light and dark in creating a work of art. If you have too much darkness, there is no light and life in a painting. If you have too much light, there are no shadows to create depth and texture in a painting.

As I bask in so much sunlight, I learn to appreciate the darkness of the winters...the darker parts of life that create shadows and depth in my being. Without both, we are not true works of art.

Journey on...