Summer!

Photographer Max Alexander is credited with this photo of Stonehenge taken at Summer Solstice.



I was awake this morning at 5:38 a.m. to welcome the first day of summer.
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5:38 a.m. was the exact moment of Summer Solstice-- meaning that the earth's northern axis is tilted as far toward the sun as it gets. In other words, the sun is at its northern-most point in the sky for the year. We are as far away from winter as we can get.
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At 5:38 a.m. a robin was near my open window to herald this momentous occasion with his cheerful song. He had been anticipating this moment for several days. On Sunday morning he began his rehearsals at 4:30 a.m. There were other robins in the neighborhood who were doing the same thing, but their calls sounded like far-away echos of my yard's soloist.
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I remember other summer mornings when the pre-dawn warblings were a veritable symphony--hundreds of birds shouting joy to the approaching sun. Minnesota and Indiana summer mornings were incredible that way.
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Celebrate Summer Solstice! Thank Heavenly Father for birdsong.

The Harbinger of Spring

This morning at 6 a.m., I could hear a robin in the leafless River Birch outside of our bedroom window. He was shouting loudly enough to be heard in spite of the tightly locked double-paned windows and the bedroom ceiling fan’s perpetual white noise. "Cheer up! Cheer up! Cheerily!” he shouted. “Cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up . . . ." He was urging the sun to rise in the predawn light above the mountains to the east. He made me happy. I couldn't help but smile inwardly.

When we lived in New Mexico, we didn’t have many robins. But we had Meadow Larks instead. I loved their song, too. And I miss them here. In Minnesota, we had the guttural chortle of Red-winged Blackbirds. But the real place for bird watching was Indiana. Early summer mornings in Indiana were incredible for birdsong—a glorious, tumultuous confusion of joy!

Actually, the Robins here in Orem can be seen year-round. But they don’t seem to sing much during the winter. They seem to save singing for Spring and Summer. That’s why this morning’s serenade by the "Harbinger of Spring" was so exquisitely sweet. The first day of Spring is this Friday.