Solstice Sun Rises Over the Sangres
We are cradled in the arms of an ever-changing planet. Remembering this helps us understand why it is so important to shift the behaviors of our imperiled species and protect the only planet we call home. … When we step into the vast dance of Earth around Sun, and Moon around Earth, we attune to a profound sense of place that is a remedy for digital overload, overcommitment, frenetic busy-ness, and on-demand culture. Seasons belie the myth of same-ness. Cycles upend our attachment to false stability. Everything is changing. And it will keep on changing. Rivera Sun (newsletter 21 June 2023 – www.riverasun.com)
Blessed Solstice! Today is the Sun’s turning. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere it is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, the shortest night. Our long days have reached their peak and will begin to gradually shorten as our night times grow longer.
Out early this morning, before the Sun rose over the Sangres I walked the labyrinth, doing my own form of ritual – gratitude and blessings to the four directions, to Mother Earth, to the sky and all above; then finishing as the Sun crested the peaks bringing her light to the treetops. On our morning walk Zadie Byrd and I encountered numerous rabbits moving about.
Later, I sauntered for an hour or so in the woods, attention focused on new growth bursting forth in the pines and on the active avian life – hummingbirds, jays, robin. A mountain blue bird and a chickadee with nests and baby chirps nearby greeted me.
Reflecting on the preciousness of this new life, I was present to its precariousness, having made the sad discovery of a fallen nest and broken eggs yesterday afternoon. A western wood peewee built her nest in a corner of our front deck as she has done for many years. I’ve watched her on the nest for several days as I’ve come and gone from the house, and I was looking forward to witnessing her ritual of hatching, feeding, the fledging her young soon. I’m curious whether she will make another attempt. Or return next year.
This Solstice Day, I feel deeply connected to and blessed by the life in these woods, the seen and the unseen, the winged and four-legged, the pines, the grasses, the cacti, the lichen, the rock beings, and even the pesky mosquitos and gnats that have arrived in their season. The connection gives me pause.
I wonder how I/we can live in greater harmony this life, with the whole of life. What new stories can we live into to become stewards of a New Earth? What new choices and ways of being will have us be ‘ancestors of a thriving planet and planetary civilization’? What can we dream into being that is out of this world and will carry us into the next? What future do you dare to dream?
As my friend, author and activist Rivera Sun, suggests in her newsletter today, connecting with planetary cycles reminds us of our place and offers respite from the chaos in our world. Connect with the Sun’s energy this day. Know that its energy and its light are fuel for all of life. Dare to dream!
Blessed Solstice! Blessed Life!
Colorado’s Summer Bloom - The Columbine