The Ever Diaries: Hello, July!
A month worthy of exaltation.
The year 1725 saw classical music composer Antonio Vivaldi publish what would quite possibly be his most famous work, The Four Seasons.
His inspiration? A set of seasonal sonnets.
It remains unclear who exactly wrote these sonnets, but there are some guesses that Vivaldi himself might have taken the pen to paper!
Quite literally, the score for Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is putting music to the words. Vivaldi included notations to indicate where in the composition the sonnet’s phrases were being depicted.
Each one as unique as the season itself, Summer’s sonnet (or “L’Estate”) goes:
In a harsh season burned by the sun,
man and flock languish, and the pine tree is scorched;
the cuckoo unleashes its voice, and soon
we hear the songs of the turtle-dove and the goldfinch.Sweet Zephyr blows, but Boreas suddenly
opens a dispute with his neighbor;
and the shepherd laments his fate,
for he fears a fierce squall is coming.His weary limbs are robbed of rest
by his fear of fierce thunder and lightning
and by the furious swarm of flies and blowflies.Alas, his fears are only too real:
the sky fills with thunder and lightning,
and hailstones hew off the heads of proud cornstalks.
What strikes you most about this sonnet?
For me, it’s how much disaster and gloom it brings with it.
Words like “hailstones,” “robbed of rest,” and “harsh season” all grace their presence throughout the sonnet… and they sure aren’t the first words I think of when I think of summer.
Yet, listening to the Four Seasons’s Summer , you do indeed hear this. There’s a sense of trepidation, a foreboding, while also a sense of liveliness and bounciness.
Perhaps that is part of summer; it’s a season of highs and lows.
Of experiencing the celebrations, long days, and vacations, while also balancing it with the downsides it brings, too: droughts, heat waves, and a feeling of missing the routine the rest of the year brings. Plus, a knowing this will not last. Summer will shift to autumn, winter, and spring before coming around once more.
This season is teaching us a lesson here, about holding space for two things to be true at once. This season of summer might not look exactly how you wish it to be, but it can still be lovely. Like any season, it isn’t perfect.
There’s a joy in living this way. Knowing that nothing will ever be wholeheartedly perfect, but that doesn’t mean we can’t love the moment all the same.
So, let’s celebrate July, knowing it will bring with it highs and lows. We can still honor and exalt it for what it is: the true height of summertime.
Here’s the Ever Diaries for July.
P.S. As always, guess what place I’m dreaming of visiting this month based on the pictures in this post. I’ll let you know where it is in the sign-off!
Sources: https://baroque.boston/vivaldi-four-seasons, https://www.riphil.org/blog/the-story-behind-vivaldi-s-the-four-seasons
Once Upon a July
Once upon a time, there was a Roman General named Julius Caesar. After fighting many a war, he announced himself dictator for life.
As the man in charge of the Roman Republic, he overhauled Roman government and society, including creating a whole new calendar system named after himself.
The previous Roman calendar was lunisolar—a fancy way of saying it relied on lunar cycles as well as solar ones. Sounds complicated, yes? Yet it did a decent job staying aligned with the seasons when used correctly, something a purely lunar calendar struggles with and can quickly fall off from.
Julius scrapped the lunar aspect of the Roman calendar and moved solely toward a solar one. Gathering his most trusted mathematicians and philosophers, he had them create a new system to better match the length of a year. The agreed-upon calendar mixed the “old Roman months, the fixed length of the Egyptian calendar, and the 365+1⁄4 days of Greek astronomy,” and was henceforth named the Julian calendar (Wikipedia, Julian calendar).
What did this look like? A twelve-month year with a day added about every four years to account for that ~1/4th of the sun’s year. Sound familiar? This system was later adjusted into today’s Gregorian calendar starting in the year 1582.
After Julius’ assassination in 44 BC, the month of July (his birth month) was renamed for him. Some 2000-plus years later—and another calendar change!— his legacy still remains.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunisolar_calendar, https://www.history.com/articles/july-month-history-facts
Worth a Revisit This Month
July, in Seven Words
1.) Exhilarating: Taking a splash into a cool body of water—how exhilarating!
2.) Thriving: Peak summer, endless days, and a garden that's starting to thrive!
3.) Humid: That humidity sure lets you know it's here to visit for a bit.
4.) Glowing: The sun really casts itself upon every inch of our world this time of year, doesn't it?
5.) Festive: Whether it's celebrating a holiday, a birthday, or simply summertime… it's festive this month.
6.) Ripe: Real summer produce starts this month; I'm dreaming about some homegrown tomatoes!
7.) Drowsy: Between activities, being outside for hours on end, vacations, packed schedules, and the simple dog days of summer, this month makes you want to take a nap!
July, Written in the Stars
July 6th: The Earth will reach the furthest point from the sun. This only happens twice a year!
July 14th: New Moon in the sign of Cancer.
July 29th: Full Moon—called the Buck Moon this month.
Notes of July
Flowers on the counter: Hydrangeas
Tunes on Repeat: Country
Currently Watching: Tucci in Italy
Book Dog-eared: Julie and Julia
Farmer’s Market: Tomatoes & Basil
“July is a blind date with summer.” —Hal Borland
Not sure if it’s this heat wave we are in as I write this, but I am dreaming and longing to be in the temperate fjords of Norway this month!
Vi sees, Claire
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