The Solstice Is A Portal

What are you moving toward?

Friends,

Happy Summer!

Today is officially the first day of summer, and tomorrow is also my 16th wedding anniversary! Here’s a photo of my partner Travis and me, young love. I often think of that Johnny Cash song with the lyrics we got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout. That was us. It’s still us.

I was nineteen when we got married. Nineteen! And we have grown and shifted together, walking through many of our own portals, our own seasons, together. It’s been quite the journey to get here.

What does summer represent to you? I’m thinking about the ways that seasons are portals, spaces that transport us, that invite us from one space to another. As we examine the season we’re leaving, we hope toward the one we’re entering.

We hold liminality, just for a few moments.

An important tool that Indigenous peoples use to help us understand seasons (of life in every way) is the medicine wheel. Summertime is red, it is the time of birth and adolescence, new life, asking big questions.

I think of the sweetness and the heat, the sweat that pours from our bodies as we work and play and lean into whatever is happening inside of us. Summer invites us into presence and play.

In my new book Summer’s Magic, Bo teaches us the importance of maintaining our relationship to Segmekwe during summer, niben.

We tend to our gardens.

We speak to our plant relatives.

We say good morning to Grandfather Sun.

We given thanks to Grandmother Moon for a break from the heat.

We honor the waters around us and care for them.

I’m reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass youth edition with my kids this summer, and I’m already so blessed by her words, reminded in such tender ways of my own ancestors and all Indigenous peoples around the world who continue to care for and sustain Mother Earth.

So, the portal is open, right now, for a few moments, a few hours, a few days, as long as you need it.

Take a few moments. Close your eyes, steady your breath.

Let the portal come into view. What is there? What kinds of flowers grow around it, who is standing at the portal with you, what do you feel?

Move closer to the portal and look through. What’s on the other side waiting for you? Who is there? What do you hope for?

Move through the portal and feel Grandfather Sun shining on you. Feel the love and movement of summer. Take a deep breath. You’ve made it.

Photo by Jake Givens on Unsplash

Friends, if you haven’t yet, please order a few copies of Summer’s Magic, for yourself, for your friends, for the kiddos in your life or community. This is the perfect book to celebrate summer, to ask what lessons we can learn about ourselves and Mother Earth.

And don’t forget this free download of the summer seek and find to go alongside the book!

Thank you to everyone who sent kind messages about my wrist injury. It’s getting a little better and I can’t stop writing right now, so I’m tending to it as I do so. And it feels so good to be back with you again. :)

A few upcoming events if you’re in these areas!

On Saturday the 22nd I’ll be at Books of Wonder in NYC for a reading and signing! Register here.

In July I’ll be at Waterstone Outdoors in Fayetteville, WV, one of our favorite climbing spots! Info below:

Thank you friends, for all the love and support, and stay tuned for my upcoming summer series!