“Of course Persephone! The underworld journey, the reboot, the renewal, and the revival of the maiden self that we put away, that we shut up into a little box, that we let get dragged into the underworld. She’s ready to come back.”
I’ve wondered often in the last three years if I actually managed to change anything after my “experiment” detailed in Walking with Persephone, the experiment of rebuilding my soul and re-centering myself in my own life, without quitting everything and without running away.
This summer, however, we took our youngest son back and forth to summer camp for one week in July—too early in the morning, too many trips to town, too scattered to focus on the things I know I need to thrive and flourish. I joked after it that I need to write an essay called: “how one week of driving to summer camp, destroyed my mental health, my business, and my life.” Just kidding, of course, but it really highlighted for me how much I have changed about my life since Persephone—how much more margin for magic I have in my life now, the healthier and more nourishing relationship I have with my Work, how much more time I spend each day—faithfully—on creative and spiritual practice, and how I did…successfully…realign the structure and content of my life to much better feed my spirit and tend to my weary heart and scattered soul.
As I stood in the kitchen after one of the days of camp, still trying to finish my tasks for the day and feeling like there is just not “enough” of me to handle it all, I said to Mark: “I used to feel this way a lot of the time. I’m so grateful that I can stand here now and think that, yes, this is a familiar feeling, but it is also a familiar feeling of how things ‘used to be’ rather than an everyday state of being/mind.”
I was was recently interviewed for Womanspirit Reclamation about Walking with Persephone and the replay of our gathering is here.
Yes, I am busy.
Busy keeping my time my own.
Busy with crows and deer
and moss and pine.
I am busy with clouds and sunbeams,
busy watching the river,
feeling the wind,
and tasting freedom
on hill and shore.
I am busy seeing roots
become roses
and brambles become berries,
busy lying on the floor
with my eyes closed
and my heart beating gently
beneath the thin skin
of my chest.
I am busy keeping myself company
and listening to the soft whispers
of my spirit’s quiet return.
.Resources:
- From stressed to centered: free resource kit
- Goddess Magic community
- #30DaysofGoddess daily practice
It’s funny how something as simple as a drive into town can transform into frazzled nerves and oh my moments and can leave us feeling overwhelmed. Yet you found your way through to see the magic and delight on the other side. Just reading your poems and words from your post over the past few months there is a feeling of a deeper connection to nature and magic which comes out so clearly in your words. Each day I look forward to logging into the FB group to see what you have posted your words reach into me and my connection to goddess and nature is richer for it.
It really did highlight for me how much my approach to life/prioritization has changed in the last three years. Thanks for commenting!