Today is a day of superlatives ~ it is the longest day, the one with the most amount of daylight hours, the one that has me genuflect to Ra, the sun God, every year.

As someone who suffers from seasonal affective disorder, I worship the sun and all its rays (with sunscreen, of course!). Today is a day of joy, yet a slight melancholy sets in by the end of it. Then today becomes a series of yesterdays and a new cycle of the growing darkness sets in.

William Faulkner spoke of the special kind of light that only the month of August holds in his book, aptly titled Light in August. He wrote of the tendriled rays that slant just so, harbingers of a colder era about to come. And even as this day marks the beginning of summer, I can’t help but think of what the future will bring.

In a recent movie called Touchback, Kurt Russell’s character defines the future as a whole lot of today just strung together. What he means is that the decisions we make today will impact what we experience tomorrow. If we decide in advance that today will be a sad day, then indeed it will be. But if we look to it as the pinnacle of light, as a day to celebrate the warmest time of year, things look a little brighter. And when the darkness does set in, we will be reminded that everything is in its time.

Right on time. Every time.