April 1

I find this a very simple explanation of the co-dependence earth has on the sun and how fragile the give and take balance really is. How lucky we are to be alive today. How lucky we are that life started out here at all. We are blessed to have the star we orbit. There are some things to be said about consistency and comfort...

From 365 Starry Nights.

"In sandy soil at the side of the road the fiddlehead ferns unroll their sun-catching fronds. It is truly spring, and the sun moves northward on its long arc. Every second the sun converts 657 million tons of hydrogen into 653 million tons of helium by a process called nuclear fusion. The missing 4 million tons of mass are converted into energy and hurled into space as heat and light.

The earth intercepts only about one two-billionth of this energy, or about 4 pounds worth of the vanished matter. The sun never misses so tiny a fraction of its huge bulk, but to the earth that 4 pounds worth of energy every second is the difference between day and night. It is also the difference between death and life.

In its journey around the sun, the earth leans into its curve like a sailor bracing against the wind. In April we begin to lean toward the sun. The sun climbs higher and higher into the sky. Its rays hit the earth's surface more directly in the northern hemisphere and the earth responds. In the summer, about a millionth of an ounce of the sun's mass falls every second at my location; in the winter less that half as much. A fraction of a millionth of an ounce of the sun's depleated mass is all it takes to tip the balance of the season back toward winter or forward to spring.

The sun, as always, goes on turning hydrogen into helium. We lean up toward the sun, tired of winter, greedy for our share of the missing 4 million tons."

If you are interessted, there are some great videos on my "Look Up!" blog showing our sun and earth and moon from completely different perspectives. I encourage all to take a look.

Good night for now and may spring provide for you a sense of re-birth.