“In everyday life, there is always an edge. Students do not cooperate, bosses reject good ideas, children become ill before a vacation, traffic snarls, the phone rings, a loved one dies…Rather than ignore, deny or fight them, we are called upon to actually dwell within them calmly and to observe what use we can make of the tension there.”
—Catherine Peck
Happy Summer! I know it feels like nations are crumbling and discord is everywhere and yet…we still must tend to our lives, where we are, gathering bits of beauty and scraps of magic where we can find them. This weekend, we had our family summer solstice ritual, gathered around a Green Man we built from flowers, sticks, and grass in the field. As we went to offer gratitude using the honey cake I had made, we discovered it was covered with ants. I had a moment of dismay, feeling like everything was “ruined” and then…we brushed off the ants and ate every single bite of cake anyway.
Elements of earth, air, water, and fire,
flow through me with wild compassion,
reminding me that magic lives even
in spontaneous moments and broken expectations.
Let me welcome surprise as a sacred guest,
sing to the setting sun even when things unravel,
and remember that my worth is not in perfection,
but in my willingness to keep my heart open.
Bless me with the courage to be fully present,
to eat the honey cake of life
bugs and all.
Blessed be.
We usually make our Green Man on May 1, but we were busy with an art show that day, so we skipped it. He was so much fun to make with summer flowers and greenery that we may keep this as a summer transition going forward!
While I originally used to use this honey cake recipe, this year I made a gluten-free honey cake that turned out to be the best honey cake ever! The secret was to use an Aldi gluten-free yellow cake mix and substitute 1/4 cup honey for part of the milk. This cake is one of our favorite holiday traditions. The honeycomb mold really makes it!
A brief slideshow of our family summer solstice ritual is here.
