While reading Pema Chödrön’s Another Kind of Freedom this morning, I smiled when I read, “Don’t believe everything you think.” What a good way to make light of the thoughts that pop in and out of our mind.

It’s the longest day of the year. The chicks are growing up fast. On their way to independence. Every year I have hens that sit on the same nest and hatch a brood together.

They end up co-parenting their shared broods. The chicks don’t care if they have one mother, two mothers, or three.

The chicks bond with both hens and go back and forth between them.

Summer Solstice is a mix of happiness and sadness for me. Summer feels like it is just getting started, but it’s all downhill from here, shortening days, the knowing that darkness is approaching.

It’s prime bee season. I think it would be lovely to be a bee. To live your life in blossoms, being able to plunge into them, bury your whole head into the flower to find its nectar. Though I suppose a bee allergic to pollen wouldn’t enjoy the experience. Though I doubt there are any such bees.

In any case, a bee can’t sneeze. They don’t breathe through a nose. They breathe through tiny openings called spiracles along the sides of their bodies.

Happy Summer Solstice day for those in the Northern Hemisphere. And for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, the days will be getting longer now.