Talking About February in April And Solar Cycles In 2011

As some of you may have noticed, there was a time "meme" going around back in February. As always, I look for the reason behind a pattern.  For those of us who experience the four seasons and particularly winter, February is often a time of contemplation and pondering. Unsurprisingly, I noticed it in posts and blogs.

There may be a simple explanation, an instinctual genetic memory that this is a time of hibernation, when the elements are not conducive to spending too much time in the great outdoors, when natural sunlight is less available and the Vitamin D it produces is reduced.  Less natural energy, more time indoors.

Unlike our ancestors, modern civilization expects us to ignore Father Winter, does not allow us to naturally slow down a little, take the time to allow ourselves to engage in creative projects indoors. Use up the stores we have created in the fall. Instead we are asked to continue "hunting and gathering", force our natural rhythms into hyperdrive.

So far 2011 has brought more natural disasters, tragedy and significant world changing events. As a blogging community we responded with pensiveness and humor that has not come out of hibernation yet.

Is Space Weather to blame?

For the last few years the weather has been "unusually active", from floods to tornadoes to snow in regions where it is not normally experienced. In some parts of the northern hemisphere, spring has forgotten to make an appearance this year. Climatologists claim it was the worst spring in 50 years. An active solar cycle, El Nino/La Nina, climate change, oceanic currents are all contributing factors to the recent "unusual" weather patterns witnessed or experienced around the globe. Globally, we have seen an "unusually" active cold and flu season.

The effects of living on a spinning planet hurtling through space held on its yearly course solely by the gravitational pull of our sun have been felt. Ever-changing, a chaotic dynamic equilibrium in a constant state of flux and change. Nature's way, from shifting tectonic plates to space weather.

More contemplation than theory, I wonder how celestial events influence human behavior. There are species and ecosystems on this planet whose rise and fall in population correlate with the 11 year sunspot cycle. Sol is in a very active phase at the moment.  Is there any correlation between that and the recent revolutions we have witnessed in some parts of the world?  Is Sol's activity the causative factor for some of the recent natural disasters? How is everything interconnected?

I'm "unusually" contemplative for the month of April.