My Ode to Summer
(Originally posted as a newsletter 9/7/21. If you are not signed up for my newsletters,signup here!
MY ODE TO SUMMER
Hello Friends!
The wheel of the year is turning as one season is turning toward the next…
and it is also the New Moon … and Rosh Hashanah - Jewish New year, when we dip apples in honey and say blessings for a sweet new year. You don’t need to be Jewish to enjoy this lovely ritual!
Summer is a great time for self-care, but then again, self-care is always necessary. When we open to receive not just what we need, but what brings us pleasure, we are then more fully nourished and able to share our gifts with others. When we feel abundant, it is as if we become an overflowing well. This is so different than when we are giving out of a sense of obligation, when we may feel like we are wringing ourselves dry in order to be there for another, even someone we love, maybe especially for someone we love.
Here is a timely excerpt from wise woman astrologer Heather Roan Robbins.
"Even though it can be tempting to put our problems into a melodramatic format to give ourselves permission for self-care in these dire times and under all these Virgo planets, we don’t need to. That’s not the point. We have a lot of work to do this year, to remake the world and take step after step to bring those changes to fruition, and we need to be in good shape to get there. The more we need to be of service, the more we need to care for ourselves so we can stay in there for the long haul."
For me, caring for myself this summer meant spending much more time in water than I usually do. And outdoor time with my family and friends. Here are some images of my summer to share with you, and I dearly hope to get in a bit more time with mama ocean while the weather is still warm enough for me to immerse myself in her salty waves. I got to the ocean twice this summer, once with my oldest dear friend Marian (a superb treat),
and once with my dear family- brother Larry, sis-in-law Dorothy and niece Olivia Cai Hua - who just turned 18! (Seems impossible, but she left for college, so I guess it must be true.)
I got to take my apprentices to Surprise Lake this summer, so glorious, atop the mountain in the middle of the forest! We hiked up and up and up and at times someone would ask: is it really worth it? I said, YES. They all agreed when they got into this luscious velvety water!
And one of the apprentices, Sacha, brought her kids Charlotte and Hudson Moore up there the following weekend. I heard they loved it, but when I saw the pic she sent us, there could be no doubt!
Here’s a photo at sunset of the beautiful private lake my friends Allison and Roger invited me to swim in this summer, which was a big part of why I got to be in water so often.
Another night my dear local friends and neighbors Karl and Norma, invited me to join them at yet another lake for what turned out to be an awesome jazz-funk concert. It was part of the Hudson Valley Jazz Festival https://www.facebook.com/cloudbursttrio and the night could not have been lovelier … with a young, waxing moon and geese in attendance overhead. Most of the enthusiastic crowd were behind the small group pictured.
And I went glamping up near Lake George with green witch Norma, a woman those who know her know is really a dolphin. We were swimming and a loon swam almost right up to us, a most magical experience!! And why not? We were, after all, in 13th Lake, shown here from a distance.
Finally,
I got to visit with green witch Cole Lopez https://www.houseofmagickny.com/connect in Vermont. I went to this waterfall during the day, and went back to the top of it with her and her partner Dane under the full moon that night! He drummed. We all sang. I danced. What wild fun with the wild water!
I've also been planning lots of nourishing new classes,
walks, and rituals for you for this autumn and winter.
You can find them here.
Coming up next is a weed walk!! Please join me at this beautiful arboretum and meet the wild medicines that grow among the planted beauties! This in-person class is limited to 20 people, so sign up now! We will add a 2nd class if needed!
Next up after that is New Moon Ritual at Transcending Roots in October.
Register here!
In these intensifying times, Touch the Earth, often …