Winter Explained

Living in the prairies has given me a unique view of the season. The wide skies are perfect for viewing changes that occur throughout the year. So here it is... the explanation for why winter (in the Northern Hemisphere) is colder than summer!

Behold Summer...


The sun rises around 4 or 5am. The sun reaches its highest point at noon. The sun is in middle points between 8am and 9am and then again from 4pm to 5pm. The sun sets around 9 or 10pm.

Now Behold Winter...


The sun rises around 8am and sets around 4 or 5pm. The sun reaches its highest point at noon, but wait...



The sun at noon in the winter is at the same position it would be around 8am or 4pm in the summer. Therefore the sun never reaches center sky, it clings near the southern horizon throughout the day! That means we are getting less light and therefore less warmth!

Release

I was watching a documentary earlier where they were interviewing different people about meditation and yoga and how they shifted the way they looked at the world. I was inspired by one man's experiences with transcendental meditation. He was talking about how after just two weeks of meditation he had changed so much that his wife actually asked him what had changed and where all the anger he had before had gone. In watching this I thought about how long it had been since I had tried to meditate and decided it would be good for me to try it. The reason for me stopping had been because every time I tried for a long time I just fell asleep instead. So I set an alarm for an hour and a half. That way if I fell asleep I would have a short nap and then continue with other things I needed to do. Then I started the initial pattern of relaxing mind and body. After that I sort of hung in the empty space of the meditation until a very clear vision came into my mind's eye. I was in a grocery store, running to the end of each aisle and shouting loudly, "I don't need any of this! I don't need this, or this, or this!" Other shoppers stopped to stare at me and I felt a tension of fear from their opinions building inside of me. But I just did this at the end of every aisle. Then my vision shifted and I was at the cash register. A mountain of groceries and other items piled up at the end of the conveyor belt. The cashier rang in the last item, hit the total button... "$239.86!" she requested. "No thanks," I said. And I walked away leaving all of those items I didn't really need and only thought I wanted sitting there on the counter and the cashier staring after me with confusion painted all over her face. My body felt such a real sense of relief after that that all that tension that had built up inside me was gone and I felt wonderful. I opened my eyes feeling amazing.