Litha 3

Storms can rage on all fronts but batter little if prepared. While some natural and otherwise forces can and will steamroll even the strongest of barricades, that is seldom and even then move the strong from withstand to survive. This does not crush the strong. Walls that are built on solid foundations face storms with little sway. Inside there is dry and warm and sweetness as forces whirl about and remind those huddled safely of appreciation and awe.

Storms energize with awe at the forces of nature as well as appreciation for preparation well done. Storms can alter routines and inconvenience but also offer time for togetherness and bonds. See the faces after the storms. Smiling in survival, basking in appreciation of the calm, and reflecting the steely resolve to mend and prepare anew.

Winds howl. Rain pours. Snow piles. The Tempest moves at will through days and nights and hours and minutes. The current of life is thus. Live prepared as well as aware. Stir not your own winds for there are enough from the canyons of others.

Litha 2

Full moons are special. Nocturnal symbol of the Cycle for all to see. The moon and the tides linked in flow and shape and influence. All for any to notice but so few truly see. There are Cycles within cycles within even other cycles and that is energy and life and time and space spinning forever. The seasons cycle once while the moon cycles more than twelve times and the tides cycle twice as much as the planet itself cycles.

Look for each as each should be but see not each but the linkage of all. It is such with those that cycle in our lives and those lives linked to us. Celebrate the cycles as you see them and savor each in its way.

Prayer Lines

Wired barbs and telegraphed punchlines zing shot at easy pray and loose Canons.

Top Ten Wisdoms wasted on the clueless as they list and pass wind.

Holier than Thou shall not pass go, please pay before you exit.

Begat Hepcats cause pro-life hates other choices and gay old timers.

Joey Bishop, Father Time, Sister Christian, Mother Mary pray for me.

All the Kings men nailed all the King’s horses for thy kingdom come.

Alle-alle-in-freedom really is nothing left to loser’s never win.

Dance ballerina till the cows come home to roost or not to roost.

That is the question of the days of whine and rose from the dead.

Pop goes your weasel and peek a boo-boo until its all better.

Party down by the riverside on the banks are doing fine.

Saving coupons because green stamps come postage due.

Full speed ahead in foreclosed rainy day galoshes.

Riptides for those middle class puddle jumpers.

Sinking feelings about options and futures and bonds.

Shorter tempers, longer lines, whose turn is it anyway?

Lock the gate, change the password, check the shopping list.

Fill the car, scratch my back, let’s go see a show.

Where’s the Captain and Crusader Rabbit? Romper stomper now!

Holy Shit. Forgive us, father. Whatever art your name.

Rose Colored Glasses

I need a new prescription for my rose colored glasses. Not going to get one though cause I don’t plan to wear my rose colored glasses anymore. Liked them when they worked. Liked things being beautiful and magical and fairy tale like. Loved that feeling.

The feeling of Old Hollywood. That place that was like another planet. Where the stars fell from the heavens and showed us things beyond us. I was one of those lovely people out there in the dark. The lifestyles of the rich and famous. Those things beyond reach. Beyond imagination. My rose colored glasses kept them there and me here.

The feeling of Washington. Still remember the very feel of that power. The city pulsed with it. To even see the White House did it. To actually tour it enhanced it. It was special. The energy of responsibility. The feel of leaders that walked there. Lived on in the history books. The names and faces from newsreels and television special reports. My rose colored glasses helped me trust.

I was happy and traveled well with my rose colored glasses. My eyes changed. I changed. Seeing the world first hand surely effected it. Living in Turkey and hearing the call to prayer and walking from affluence to poverty everyday did it. The feel of Burning Man and true community shook my vision to be sure. So many things changed the way I see. It shouldn’t surprise me that my rose colored glasses don’t work anymore. What surprises me is that I keep trying to see through them.

Did it when I watched the Oscars. Tried to feel what I felt when Bogey, Wayne, Hayward, Gable, Leigh, Hope, Niven, Garland, Monroe, Holden, and so many more felt so far away and special. Tried to feel the eliteness of it all. Felt instead a simpler connection. The feel of storytellers and artists sharing gifts. It was less special and more special at the same time. It was not another planet. It was just a nice night out for some folks that did their job well.

Tried my rose colored glasses on and looked at Washington. Thought of Stephen King’s book, “Needful Things”. In the book, one of the characters has a pair of Elvis’ glasses and wallows in a delusion while wearing them. I look at Washington now and feel much different. That is about me. About my changes. I see Washington struggling to solve itself. Wish them well.

My rose colored glasses don’t work. My vision works just fine though. I see how to share. I attrite away from accumulation. My path is simple and much clearer. Needed the rose colored glasses though because I would have walked into things that I was not ready to really see. I see beauty differently now. Magical is actually real now….and the smoke and mirrors can go in the closet with the rose colored glasses. As for fairy tales…..the grim ones suck wind……..the magical ones have wings. I believe in fairy tales and happy endings. For everyone.

Important Day

Today is a very important day. Important people were born today. Important people died today. Today is that day when that really big event happened and all those others things fell into place because that really big event happened. People in that place you read about in that magazine a few years ago commemorate today with the ceremony that sounds a lot like that thing you do later this year to honor your roots just like your mother taught you and her mother taught her. Today is special in that way. It is a day of births, deaths, anniversaries, separations, surgeries, trials, parties, weddings, first times, last times, remember that times, and did we really do that times. Today is important and this year marks another year of that importance.

Circle today on the calendar. Sometimes the Full Moon falls on this date and that sweetens the celebration. When the New Moon falls on this day, which happens less than once every ten years, it is tradition to remember all the things that came to light on this day since the dawn of time. In Ancient times, today was celebrated by a sigh of thanks just before sleep came to mark another day of survival.

Today might not be as special as those days selected by Churches and Governments as High Holy Days, Holidays, Official Observance Days, or whatever they call them but today is special just the same. Today is one day away from yesterday and one day closer to tomorrow. Today is now and now is really all there is when we remember to celebrate it. Today is so important that when tomorrow finally arrives, we rename it Today.

Litha 1

The peak of the sun has come for another cycle and the summer is to be savored as we transition to the days of winter. Solstice marks both the beginning and the end but is best seen as the Shift. Shift to savor waning light and warmth of this realm to sustain all when the dark and cold returns.

This is part of the Cycle but also symbolic for there are Solstice type events in all existence. Beyond the cycle of earth and more of the cycle of transitions. Transitions in life states and even existences.

Celebrate the joy of the Shift in ways that befit you. Honor and respect how others do so but make what you do your own. Feel the energy as it pulses and moves with the Cycle. That is what should drive you for energy is for all, tribe and herd. How each processes that energy is what makes each unique. The processing is different. The energy is common. Energy links. Energy defines. Energy is all.

Litha

“Use the Light”

Litha begins with the shift. The Calendar marks its beginning as June 21^st. The moment of balance, Summer solstice. A Sabbat and a Solstice, Litha moves seekers into harvest and the preparations for Winter that begins with another Solstice that marks the shift back to the light.

Solstice has been honored since the dawn of time. Mayans marked the turn as did the Druids and Celts. Egyptians knew it and the Greeks and the Romans did as well. Midsummer’s Eve has been written about and celebrated in variations for eons.

Open to what this shift means---that the balance of night and day moves now to the favor of the night. In lore, the Holly King returns to the throne as winter approaches. It moves to the time to harvest and store so that the huddle around the winter’s fire is with food and nourishment. Merriment and wishes mark the days of Litha.

Look to the heavens and celebrate the shift. Move into Litha knowing there is warmth and light to harvest and prepare.

Years ago, this writer and seeker spent a year in Alaska , the land of the Midnight Sun. The arrival in this wonderful land was in June and, ironically I now realize, right around Summer Solstice. A crew picked me up at the Fairbanks Airport just after eight o’clock in the evening. We gathered the bags and stopped for a bite to eat. It was just about midnight when we drove the Parks Highway toward the village of Anderson to begin my year at the radar site nearby.

As we rode, I noticed the light. It was barely twilight even though one day eased away and another began on the calendar. As we approached the Tanana River , we passed a man riding his bicycle, at a very good pace, and waved as did the rider. I looked at my watch and turned to the crew in the vehicle to ask. “It is almost 1 o’clock in the morning. Right?”

They smiled and nodded, knowing the question that would follow. I asked anyway. “What the heck is he doing riding his bike at 1 in the Morning?”

The driver answered for all of the crew--an answer of experience and insight as he said, “He is using the light.” He let the silence sit for a bit and then added. “You will understand.”

After a winter of nights in that magick place, I did understand and still do.

Litha is a time of light to prepare for the days that come.

Use the Light, seekers.

Gone Fishin'

I went fishing many months ago. Zen fishing. Just sat on the grass around a stocked pond in an upscale housing complex and welcomed the fish. There was a peace inside of me and I let it radiate to welcome the fish and enjoy their company. Soon, they gathered. A distance away but there were dozens of them. Lazing. Just being. Yet distanced from me. So I went deeper into the peace and radiated it even more. Inviting them. Inviting them to trust and be welcomed so that we could mutually enjoy each other’s company.

Perhaps the area where I sat was just not a place they frequented. So I moved. Closer to where they were at ease. They scattered when I did but I settled in and waited from them to accept me.

Karma trumped my Zen. The fish remembered. They remembered being caught and released. They remembered the hooks and the hookers. They did not trust me because I was one of them. Those that brought them here to catch them and release them in the ultimate lie of bait and switch. They were captives in a gilded cage. In this case, a beautiful pond where they were enticed with food to bite the hook, be shown as prize in a place close to their death, and then returned to their hell on earth.

I am a vegetarian and do not fish for sport, food, bravado, company, adventure, solace, or tradition. Raised near a bay and less than a dozen miles from the ocean, fishing and what draws some to it eluded me as did hunting. Used to joke that I would only hunt what I would eat with a weapon I can handle and they did not let me hunt chickens and cows in a Buick. Now, even the chickens and cows are safe since my carnivore days in that manner are over by my evolved choices.

Karma trumped my Zen and helped me see we must choose individually while healing collectively. Zen fishing invites. Karma waits to see if we can be trusted. Our dominion over fish stinks and we have to let the wind of change blow the stink off of us. Maybe some other day they will be biting.

River of Pain

There is a path on the other side of the River of Pain. Took a while to see it. Took a while to see anything but the pain of the crossing. See is not the right word. Feel is the right word. Took a while to feel anything but the pain.

I don’t remember leaving the river. The pain surrounded. Imbedded by the feel of it. The river almost drowned me long after I was on the land. Then there was the glimpse of hope. A path. On this side of the pain. Off the map. Yet there it was. Marked? More scarred upon the mountain. Perhaps that is the mark. Clearly marked by the scars of those that came before. Those that swam through the pain before and left clues to the right way to journey upward. Yes. They scarred their souls to push through the façade and reveal their truth. They marked their way on the knees in thanks and fear and pain and more. Yes, they found the way. It was here all along. On the other side of the River of Pain.

Golden nuggets of truth scattered all over the clearing. The place of respite after swimming the fires of hell that is border between the marked path and the true path. I saw their glitter and felt their call. A field of Fortune Cookies spread by the explosion of wisdom that is the war within each of us.

“Abundance is better understood within scarcity.” I had to smile. Yes! More over there is less over here. Yes! I pocketed the rock and reached for another.

“Unconditional is sweetened by tasting conditions.” Tears fell from my face and washed away the trail dust. A kiss to the nugget warmed my lips as sure as any flesh of any joy. It was still in my hand and my heart as well as my mind as I reached in thirst for the next nectar.

“Needs are revealed once wants are unmasked.” Was I crying when I picked it up? Did the tears from when reading the inscribed beauty beneath this free sentence of ultimate freedoms? Does it matter? Tears cleanse.

“Trust nourishes what questions choke.” I breathed it in. Filled my lungs and soul with each intake. Good air, in. Bad air, out. The carnage of the swim fell further behind. The air was rich and pure and abundant.

“Doing trumps done.” I rose to my feet. Ready to travel. Ready for the path ahead. Ready for the unknown that calls me sweetly home.

“Giving is your piece of sharing.” Rocks in the backpack to be shared to the ones that ask. I felt them in my spirit. The place where they shall nurse and be nursed and spring forth in any season as they blossom.

“Peace is your share of receiving.” I laughed as I took my first step up the path on this side of the River of Pain. Payback ain’t a bitch after all. Payback is a Beauty. Balance is in the giving. Time to move on up this hill. It was one heck of a swim. Almost didn’t make it. Glad that I did.

Beltane 16

Pace is a collective thing. The group moves as quickly or as slowly as the slowest member. That is the joy as well as the dilemma of groups. Know the slowest and work to increase the speed thereof. That increases the speed overall. Some may be left behind but that should only be after efforts to assist and accelerate.

Once the slowest is now faster, the entire group is faster as well. Then there will be a new slowest one. It shall always be the case. If the overall pace is good, it matters not but should still be monitored. If the overall pace is wrong, it is essential. The improvement of the slowest then directly improves the pace of the entire group.

If you are the slowest, open to aid. If you know the slowest, reach to them to help. Find ways to ease their burden. Strive to increase their understanding. Do all you can to push them forward. It is for the good of all.