Solstice Blessings! The energy of right now is ripe with birth, the full moon, the full sun of summer solstice (in the northern sphere).
May you use this energy to release and renew, slow down and honor the abundance of what’s right in front of you.
This morning, I led a full fire ceremony with the fam, full of gratitude.
As I walk down to our ceremonial fire, already decorated and ablaze by my beautiful family, I feel a wave of wanting to ‘clean up’ and organize. In the same breath, I merge with the brilliance of it all, just as is.
The candles lit around the fire, the gorgeous rainbow of flowers I picked this morning, smell of incense on the breeze mixed with the heavy platter I’m carrying of figs, puja things, and samagri.
Samagri is a blend of roots and herbs offered to the flame given after every round of mantra in a yagya, fire ceremony. I usually buy it, but today I lovingly craft it with what I have on hand & it’s as lovely as everything else to all the senses:
Chamomile
Rose Bud
Ashwagandha
Cherry Bark
Cinnamon
Juniper Berry
Plantain
Blue Lotus
With ceremony in full swing, I want to snapshot what I see—to retain its baptismal feeling—but I keep chanting the 108 rounds of mantra.
The small old orange bike on its back behind Daisy,
The bike she first learned to ride, now weathered & worn,
The one she rode down the hill to the ceremony & that I thought to move before we began.
She on her belly writing and drawing more intentions.
Stuffing green briar leaves with samagri and dropping the packets to the flame.
Linden beside me on his own mat island facing a different direction than the rest, so he can lay back, feet facing the fire & use part of the camping mat as a pillow.
Burning our collective ‘worries’ from our ‘Basket of Eternal Healing’ one at a time,
Showing me his written worry—that I wasn’t allowed to see when he’d written it—before surrendering it to the fire,
Sitting then laying then sitting, running up to the house, then coming back with the hat he just received from the tooth fairy, lounging then sitting, topping off my bowl of samagri with fingerfuls of his.
Rowan learning the mantra and chanting aloud beside me, palpably dropping into the meditative rhythm.
His samagri running low, scrounging for more to submit to the fire,
The plopping of large pieces of bark that seemed to come from the sun itself, the smile between us, and the return of smaller pinches to the fire.
His intentions sailed into the flame as a mini paper airplane.
Serkan happy to be there, holding space, in ease, appreciating the beauty of the whole wide scene. Me swelling to bear witness to all of us in circle, warm yet early enough to have the sun still filtered by pines to the east.
May today and this weekend find you slowing down and appreciating the abundance of what’s right in front of you.
What are you celebrating in all its fullness?
All my love,
Heather