the light, always the light

One Month A Swim: June

One Month A Swim is a newsletter looking back on the month that was through my sea swimming, but also through the things that caught my eye and ears, and most importantly, my heart. If you’re new to Another World is Possible, welcome! And if you’re not so new, thank you for being here!

On solstice morning, I woke up, naturally, with the sun. I slipped out of The Mermaid, our aptly-named holiday home in Donegal in the west of Ireland, to take photos of the patchy sunrise. The light had already lost its soft peach glow, but I showed up anyway.

One way or another, I have marked the summer solstice since our three years living in Denmark in the late 2000s. As a then family of four, we went to check out the Sankt Hans Aften bonefires that light up the Danish coastline on 23rd June. There is something about celebrating the light in northern latitudes that is absent in French culture. My family back home look at me perplexed when I talk about the solstice, whether summer or winter. To them, i…