Happy Midsummer’s Day! Summer Solstice, or Litha, is the longest day in the calendar of the northern hemisphere, the day to celebrate the sun, to be grateful for the energy and warmth it gives, to consider the element of fire.

This is a season to pay closer attention to your energy. What fires you up,
gets you excited and energized,
angry and irritable?
Those are the things to pay attention to.
Can you modulate the flow of energy,
not to deny anger, but to regulate and use it,
not to hinder creative endeavors,
but to thoughtfully channel that fire
into satisfying work?

Where I am today, we are receiving desperately-needed rain. Not a day to stand in the field and feel the rays of sun energizing my body. Instead, today will be a day to walk in the glorious rain and meditate on how the source of energy is always there, even when I can’t feel it.

Wishing you a deep awareness of the sun’s revivifying power today. May you feel energized and open. May joy be always present, even when grief and pain are your companions.

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Gratitude List:

1. Rain!

2. The sun is always there.

3. So much to learn. There’s no end to the learning.

4. Time with the family. Stepping outside routine gives us new ways to know each other.

5. Watching teenagers grow into themselves and develop maturity.

May we walk in Beauty!

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“This is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go of and becomes the future; the place of caught breath.” —Margaret Atwood
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Sometimes everything
has to be
enscribed across
the heavens

so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.
—David Whyte
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“Whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market.” —Pope Francis
*****
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” —Annie Dillard
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“Now, on the longest day, light triumphs, and yet begins the decline into dark. We turn the Wheel… for we have planted the seeds of our own changes, and to grow we must accept even the passing of the sun… Set Sail…See with clear eyes…See how we shine!” —Starhawk
*****
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” —Albert Einstein
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“Ceremonies large and small have the power to focus attention to a way of living awake in the world. The visible became invisible, merging with the soil.” —Robin Wall Kimmerer
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“The cure for anything is salt water—tears, sweat, or the sea.” —Isak Dinesen