Midsummer Night's Eve party
Last night I went to a Summer Solstice party in a park. It was for a friend's birthday. Beauty was everywhere. The gardens, the rain, the breeze in the trees, ducks and jumping fish in a pond, colored scarves hung in trees, table cloths and flowers in vases and candles, and the varied extravagance of beautiful women. We ate sitting on blankets and pillows from around the world, around a ring of candles and flowers. We shared thoughts and blessings and writings and a collage.
A friend asked me awhile back to share my thoughts about nature's seasons. So I'm just now getting around to it since this solstice reminds me of it. We are actually very rhythmical creatures, though technology brings produce and flowers out of season and we can now push buttons that disassociate us from the rhythms of nature. We become a-rhythmical.
Could this dissassociation also keep us from thinking there's something more encompassing than ourselves, something/Someone greater than ourselves? With technology we keep pulling the future toward us wanting everything to happen more quickly, yet we complain there's not enough time. We want instant gratification yet have let downs of "is this all"?
We can easily tend to our physical nourishment, but what nourishes our soul? What brings healing? joy? There's a saying - "To travel hopefully is better than to arrive." Nourishment for me comes from making space in my days, anticipating life's mysteries, God's surprises. Anticipation leads to reverence which partners with wonder.
I love our era with all our choices of convenience. But for my soul, I do not want to neglect the needed space for Truth, goodness, and beauty--life's fundamentals. My soul breathes, taking in the world through my senses. My approach to the year's seasons or rhythms is like practicing the steps of the year's dance.
Winter is a breathing in both externally and internally. As the natural world withdraws into the earth and we draw into the warmth of the house. Inwardly I'm very active with thinking, reading, pondering and creativity. It feels like a time of rest.
Spring and Fall equinoxes are a balance of light and dark and seem to bring more busyness. From Winter's rest Spring brings new life, warmth and color. But it has it's set backs with it's late frosts and hail, both externally and internally.
Summer Solstice is a breathing out time. Nature is the exhale of the earth. Leaf and bright colors are put on. Lots of growth and external activity. But internally? We kind of 'fall asleep' into a dreamy summer state.
Fall absorbs the summer activity back into the earth. Summer dreams are not always attainable and with fall we 'come down to earth'--reality. We wake from our dreamy state. Autumn 'trial by fire' with it's colors bring an inner fire, bringing a warmth for the darkness of winter ahead. The clarity of our mind restores in the fall and along with it a new vigour and freshness.
This is the harmony of nature's seasons and moods I've blended with my internal seasonal path of my soul - what I call "soul breathing". I'll be saying more about this in a couple days because it'll be St John the Baptist day and his message addresses this summer dreamy state.
On my circular calendar I've tried to visually show this seasonal progression with colors of the rainbow around the circle. Winter being dark purple to blue ...
A friend asked me awhile back to share my thoughts about nature's seasons. So I'm just now getting around to it since this solstice reminds me of it. We are actually very rhythmical creatures, though technology brings produce and flowers out of season and we can now push buttons that disassociate us from the rhythms of nature. We become a-rhythmical.
Could this dissassociation also keep us from thinking there's something more encompassing than ourselves, something/Someone greater than ourselves? With technology we keep pulling the future toward us wanting everything to happen more quickly, yet we complain there's not enough time. We want instant gratification yet have let downs of "is this all"?
We can easily tend to our physical nourishment, but what nourishes our soul? What brings healing? joy? There's a saying - "To travel hopefully is better than to arrive." Nourishment for me comes from making space in my days, anticipating life's mysteries, God's surprises. Anticipation leads to reverence which partners with wonder.
I love our era with all our choices of convenience. But for my soul, I do not want to neglect the needed space for Truth, goodness, and beauty--life's fundamentals. My soul breathes, taking in the world through my senses. My approach to the year's seasons or rhythms is like practicing the steps of the year's dance.
Winter is a breathing in both externally and internally. As the natural world withdraws into the earth and we draw into the warmth of the house. Inwardly I'm very active with thinking, reading, pondering and creativity. It feels like a time of rest.
Spring and Fall equinoxes are a balance of light and dark and seem to bring more busyness. From Winter's rest Spring brings new life, warmth and color. But it has it's set backs with it's late frosts and hail, both externally and internally.
Summer Solstice is a breathing out time. Nature is the exhale of the earth. Leaf and bright colors are put on. Lots of growth and external activity. But internally? We kind of 'fall asleep' into a dreamy summer state.
Fall absorbs the summer activity back into the earth. Summer dreams are not always attainable and with fall we 'come down to earth'--reality. We wake from our dreamy state. Autumn 'trial by fire' with it's colors bring an inner fire, bringing a warmth for the darkness of winter ahead. The clarity of our mind restores in the fall and along with it a new vigour and freshness.
This is the harmony of nature's seasons and moods I've blended with my internal seasonal path of my soul - what I call "soul breathing". I'll be saying more about this in a couple days because it'll be St John the Baptist day and his message addresses this summer dreamy state.
On my circular calendar I've tried to visually show this seasonal progression with colors of the rainbow around the circle. Winter being dark purple to blue ...