We are in the longest days once more. Another turn of the wheel, another whorl of the spiral. How do things look to you, from this same marker but at a different time stamp? (How) has your vantage point changed this time around?
I have felt strangely out of kilter with the buzzy summer energy. Illness has kept me more still and more quiet than I have been in a long time - maybe ever. At spring equinox I wrote about feeling polarities, and this has been so strong for me once more as we approach the summer solstice. My body feels like it is in mid winter. I have been sleeping for 10, 11, 12 hours and more. Once this might have been a source of great frustration. I used to hurl myself at summer, haunted by our long, dark winters. I wanted to gorge myself on whatever sunlight and heat we had. It’s so interesting to notice this shift in myself.
This morning I joined a beautiful call to write the ‘sexy season’, hosted so graciously by kerri ni dochartaigh and it was the perfect way to mark this day. We talked a bit about signs from the natural world, and so I thought I would share two that have been appearing for me recently.
Wild rose, dog rose, Feirdhris as Gaeilge. I have always loved their pink petals: some so pale they’re almost white; others Barbie pink. They’re like the exclamation mark of the hedgerow. And if you harvest them carefully, leaving the rest of the plant alone, it should still produce hips later in the year. I picked these for an oxymel with elderflower and it already smells incredible.
Eggs (I think this is a collared dove ~ Fearán baicdhubh ~ egg). This appeared in the middle of the garden today, blown I think from the beautiful old oak in the background of this picture. Eggs have been a bit of a theme for me this year. I pulled the Cosmic Egg card at Spring Equinox and the message was simply:
your process is sacred
I love these shapes too, the curves of the egg and of the perfectly imperfect hearts.
My wish for solstice (because it is a beautiful day to make wishes), is for more light in this world. More love, more healing, more sacred processes. And to terribly misquote - a wish without action is just a dream. Take action for the things you care about, because there is no guarantee someone else will. Use your voice, your resources, whatever time and energy you have available to you. We all need you to.
This is a wee poem I wrote, thinking about what sound the sound of summer is for me.
leaves jostle insect wings cotton brushed warm air on hot skin solstice the auditory feast we sigh we ease and are eased powered by sunlight bealtaine draws in - lughnasa on her heels the trick is to listen bathe in the whispers to sustain
Oh so so gorgeous. This is exactly how I’ve been feeling - thank you for giving the feeling words ❤️
Gorgeous reflections and beautiful images and I love that spiral x