The Stirring of the Seeds

Last night, I joined my Womenspirit sistah Tarleton Brooks in one of her monthly Sacred Circle Dances, this one to honor and celebrate Imbolc.  Tarleton offered for me to write and read a meditation for the dancers.  I did, and here it is for anyone else interested in using this meditation to celebrate this ancient holyday of "in the belly".






Imbolc, which in Celtic means “in the belly” is a holyday representing Hope.  This is the celebration of the stirring of the seeds underground.  Day by day, darkness gives way to light at morning and evening.  There is a sense of the eventual coming of spring, but we feel a restlessness or cabin fever also.  This can be the bleakest time of the year when we can wonder if spring will ever come.  We long to spend more time outdoors instead of hidden inside.  



What seeds are stirring in you?  What is restless to emerge?  What of yourself do you wish to bring to light instead of to keep in darkness?




Imbolc is a solar holyday, based on the position of the earth to the sun.  It has traditionally been celebrated as a fire festival, and also honors Brigid (or Bride), the ancient Celtic goddess of poetry, healing and smithing.  It is a celebration of fertility of the coming spring, both with livestock as well as crops.  


What do you want to fertilize in yourself?  What do you want fire to activate or purify in your life?  What do you hope to heal?  


Smithing is about hammering and forging metals into a desired shape for a desired function.  What are you needing to forge in your life?




The Christianized holiday placed on Imbolc is Candlemas, when there are candle ceremonies throughout the world, welcoming the return of the light of the sun.  So strong a figure was Brigid in the Irish culture that she was made into a saint in the early Christian church, and Candlemas is her day.


Candles represent light and life and enlightenment.  What do you choose to shed light upon?  




Groundhog day is also celebrated on Imbolc.  Legend has it that if the groundhog sees his shadow, we will have six more weeks of winter; if he doesn’t see his shadow, we will enjoy an early spring.  


What would you like to see as you emerge from the dark into the light?  What do you want to birth into the spring?  As we are still in the season of hibernation, now is the time to incubate and gestate these desires.




Imbolc celebrates the early birthing of the lambs and the production of ewe’s milk.  Birthing is a powerful process, followed by careful tending of the fragile newborns.  The lambs must be kept warm and nourished in order for them to grow and thrive.


What do you hope to birth?  How can you nurture this desire and prepare it for labor?  How can you continue to sustain it so it can grow into its strength and thrive?

Now is the time of the new moon, the waxing crescent, a time of the young Maiden, of Artemis aiming her bow and arrow high into the skies.  It is a time of the growth of the lunar light.  Let the lunar energy help you to connect with the growth within you as we celebrate this rich holyday.


Blessed Be.


I hope you find peace and joy today in Nature and her wonders.


Kate




(For more info on UU Womenspirit, visit www.uuwomenspirit.org)

A Month of Story

I just returned from a full weekend at the SE Womens Herbal Conference at Camp Rockmont in Swannanoa, in the mountains of Western North Carolina.  Swannanoa... what a beautiful word!  It conjures peace and light to me.

I met Ramona Moore Big Eagle there, and she offered a session entitled Finding Your Story.  While I am a writer with lots of stories, I love to listen to and learn from others.  Ramona is a tall, graceful, powerful Legend Keeper, a storyteller of the Tuscarora Tribe, with dancing eyes and a welcoming, open countenance.  Everyone in our group of at least 60 ended up telling two stories about ourselves to someone in the group we didn't know.  We were all energized and excited about our adept ability to tell stories, even though that's what women do... we are all storytellers.  It's our legacy, and our universal way of teaching and leading.

After returning home, I read an article in Waverly Fitzgerald's October Living in Season e-zine where she writes about Curating Her Life.  There's a lot in that issue.  Waverly points out that October is a month of memories, stories, and ancestors.  So I have decided to do one of the things I love best (but seem to let slip to the end of my "to do" list) and write one story a day this month about memories and ancestors to honor this time of year.  All Hallow's Eve (or Samhain) is traditionally the time of honoring the dead, being thankful for our harvests, and slowing down in the cold and darkness, returning to the cave and the fire, and telling our stories.  So I will honor that ancient tradition.

Memories abound with my participating in a recent Small Book Exchange through Asheville BookWorks.  Memory Palaces was the theme, and each of the 15 participating artists interpreted that in her/his own way to create a rich cornucopia of miniature book art.  My book, entitled Rooms with a Clue, traced my connection to and passion for art and creative expression throughout my life (so far).

It all started with my Gaga's button box, and continues through many wonderful memories of art created with my hands and heart.  One of my very favorite memories as a very little girl was sitting at our kid's card table (just the right height for littles) in our pine-paneled den with my Mama.  She and I drew and traced pencil marks all over a page from the newspaper, making swirls and circles and intersecting curved lines over that generous expanse of newsprint.  Once we were finished drawing, we found shapes that reminded us of fruits and vegetables and colored them as such with our crayons.  I remember watching her color a green pear, wishing I could color as beautifully and regularly as she did, and also relishing the time we were spending together.  It was so lovely, nurturing, and just plain FUN!

My Mama was a fun lady who loved to laugh and put others at ease.  She was a Libra, and it showed; everything was about balance to her: relationships, bank accounts, give and take. People were the most important thing to her; she was the essential extrovert.   And she loved creating, too.  A needleworker (I still sleep under afghans she crocheted and have sweaters she knitted) she taught me to embroidery, knit, and sew as a girl.  I grew up surrounded by lace tablecloths, bedspreads, and handmade baby clothes which adorn my home today.  Holidays brought out major efforts in decorating:  the tabletop decorative Christmas tree she created with hundreds of hand-wound roses made of dark red crepe paper strips and attached to a cardboard cone that fit over a small table lamp so you could see a little bit of light every now and then through the roses.  And then there was the time that she created two huge (well, probably 3 feet tall) styrofoam bells shapes that she covered with hand-cut green felt leaves for props for one of our annual Christmas cards that showed how much my brother Fred (11 months older than I) and I were growing.  It was the 50s; the debut of the picture Christmas card.

She had a beautiful handwriting and always tried to write in green (she had a fountain pen she used all the time that only held green ink) because it was her favorite color.  Today, it is also mine.  Whenever I would ask her for her autograph in one of my autograph books (another 50s fad) or school annual, she would pen, "To my understudy."  And while I understand that now, it didn't satisfy my youthful daughter's need for superlatives about who I was... at least I didn't think so at the time.  Today, I am proud to be her understudy, to continue the creative self-expression that she nurtured in me, and to quote her wonderful, unique sayings.  Of course, we've all heard "This too shall pass" which was NEVER comforting when you heard it, but which I have said to my children as well.  My favorite saying of my wise mama is, "The sun don't shine on the same dog's ass all the time."  Now we call it Karma, but we didn't know that term back then.  Course, with her Charleston Geechee accent, it sounded more like "De sun don' shine on de same dog's ass all de time."  I can enunciate it exactly as she did.

I hope you take the time to savor a great story today.

Peace,
Kate

For the New Year, Live Your Own Life

This is one in a series for a column I am writing for our local newspaper, the Hendersonville Times-News.

“Every human being is unique and special unlike any who has ever existed before or will ever exist again. But when we become captives of culturally defined roles and behaviors – stereotypes – we interfere with becoming all that we can be. We must learn to draw on our inner resources, to define ourselves in terms of our own internal valuing system, rather than trying to fit into some stereotyped role.” – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Death: The Final Stage of Growth

Kubler-Ross was a pioneer in death and dying, yet here she is advocating living our lives: an authentic life, one in tune with “our own internal valuing system”.

That’s a large part of our individuality, our discovering how to create and live a hand-crafted life.

I’ve been thinking a lot about core values recently. The first time I was aware of focusing on defining my core values was in my mid-20s when a business acquaintance told me I’d need to clarify my personal values before I could determine my professional goals. At the time I thought he was nuts. How could I know what I wanted until I knew what I could afford? Today, I am amazed at that naiveté. How consumer driven I was! Our culture encourages that mentality: earn and spend, borrow and spend, desire and spend. While chasing the money trail, we really forget to walk our own path.

Since then, I’ve passed that advice along to others. And I’ve noticed that when I am happy with my life, I seem to choose to buy less. It is as though when I’m unhappy or frustrated with life, I buy more things, as if I am trying to fill some kind of hole inside. When I’m content with my life, I am filling my inner well on my own through my choices and actions.

One of my favorite books (and movies) is Out of Africa. Karen Blixen (author Isak Dinesen) was a courageous woman who, when asked on which side of World War I Denmark would stand, she responded, “On our own, I think. We have a history of that.” Blixen was Danish through and through and stood on her own for her lifetime. While she dearly longed for a happy marriage, someone she could “call my own”, she never attained that. This was in direct contrast to the independence that her lover, Englishman Denys Finch-Hatton, desired just as fervently. Their insecurities clashed against each other, and were cause for many conflicts. Finch-Hatton once said to Blixen, “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and realize I’ve lived someone else’s.”

Isn’t that true of all of us? When we get to the end of our lives, no one regrets that they didn’t work more weekends. They regret not following their heart, spending more time with loved ones, listening to their Muse, or slowing down to smell the flowers along the way.

It is a new year, a new decade. How about celebrating it by taking the time to think about what part of yourself you would like to express, explore, or create. That’s what a hand-crafted life is: something we make of ourselves, for ourselves.

What might your hand-crafted life look like?

I hope you have a day filled with a vision of living your own life.

Peace,

Kate

All rights reserved, 2010 Hendersonville Times-News

A New View

I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.

-- Richard P. Feynman

Happy New Year!

Happy New Decade. It's hard to believe we're 10 years past Y2K.

One of my intentions for the new year is to write more, both for myself as well as thoughts to be read by others. I am proud to have a new column running in the local newspaper entitled Living a Hand-Crafted Life which revolves around how important it is to each of us to rediscover our passions and to follow our hearts. I will publish these columns in this blog after it is printed in the paper. Living a Hand-Crafted Life expresses how important each person's unique self-expression is in the scheme of things.

Martha Graham wrote:

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action. And because there is only one you in all time, this expression is unique. If you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how it compares with expression. It is your business to keep the channel open.

So this year, I am challenging myself to keep that channel open.

This past fall, I took a class called Foundations of Business through a local non-profit Mountain Bizworks whose mission it is to support entrepreneurs starting their own small businesses. The first 4 weeks were all about financial info and planning. The second 4 weeks were about marketing. I thought I knew a bit about running a business and about marketing, but I really learned a lot! Not only about "break even point" and "gross profit" and business planning but also about marketing and what's underneath it all.

The marketing discussion began with "what emotion are you appealing to with your business?" and then proceeded to creating a mission statement for our businesses. I've created and worked with mission statements for non-profits for years... but for my business? Of course! (Imagine me slapping my forehead as if I coulda hada V-8...) But how would I create a mission statement for my business, which has several different components? Jewelry, journals and books and cards, writing and design, teaching, and facilitating... they all seemed so different!

It took me a few days... and some serendipitous conversations and readings... for me to realize that my business mission revolved around the importance of self-expression -- for anyone, not just me. So here it is (after much word-smithing):

The mission of The Cre8tive Flow is two-fold: to pursue my own passions for creating, and to encourage others to comfortably and self-confidently express themselves and their uniqueness. I aspire to provide high quality services and products that honor and respect the integrity of each individual and which offer opportunity for sincere connection within oneself and/or with others.

I also receive a daily message from Daily Good (also check Karma Tube and Charity Focus) and today's message was a video called The Known Universe. It is all about mathematical equations translated into images depicting what we know about the universe. It is absolutely mind blowing. BAM!

But what is even more phenomenal than The Known Universe is the internal knowing that in all of creation there will be no one else exactly like each of us, creating the same energy, holding the same passions, offering the same connections as we do. And -- and this is really IT -- Spirit (however you define It), knows and permeates each of us... EACH OF US... and imbues us with blessings and grace.

So, here is a new year's suggestion: Watch the video. Feel small. Then think about how Spirit knows YOU and connects individually with YOU. And how important you are.

Now THAT's a Big Bang! BAM!

Wishing all of us a new year of honored self-expression.

Peace AND Prosperity,

Kate

Living a Hand Crafted Life

This is the first of a monthly series of a column entitled "Living a Hand Crafted Life" published in our local newspaper, the Hendersonville Times-News.

“Don't ask what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Harold Thurman Whitman

This is a powerful passage, one you may have read before. I’ve seen it often and I believe it’s because the desire to do what we truly love resonates with each of us.

This is a new column to explore and encourage what it might mean to create a life of one’s dreams. I think a lot about how important it is for each of us to express who we are. The act of self-expression occurs in myriad ways: in our work, our families, our art, our volunteer efforts, our community. Our strongest form of expression is related to our passions.

Take a moment to consider the question, “What are you passionate about?”

Studies have shown that the amount of control we have over our lives directly corresponds with our mental health: the more control, the better our mental health; the less control, the poorer our mental health.

These times are difficult and many find their lives out of control. Their passion then focuses on survival. This is completely appropriate. So how can we enrich our lives even though we are not in control of our surroundings?

Unemployment is high. I know: I was laid off from my full-time job less than a year ago. And while my logical side repeated, “Get a job! Make a paycheck!”, there was a constant small voice saying, “It will be ok. Do what you love.” And while I loved the work I had been doing, it was time for a change. I wanted to create a “crazy quilt” livelihood of all the things I love most. And unemployment was a blessing in disguise that gave me the opportunity to explore my passions.

The thought kept drifting through my head, “When a door closes, a window opens.”

I found that with time for myself, I reconnected with one of my greatest passions: creating art. We are all creative. Our main hindrance is that we don’t give ourselves the time and space to explore our creativity, our unique form of self-expression. With my new schedule, I was able to dive into the art that had been pushed to the back burner, and it was a wondrous and prolific time.

In the spring, I was invited to submit entries in a Recycled Art exhibit at Hand in Hand Gallery. Within days of receiving the invitation, I found a box of old brass window escutcheons (you know, where you put your fingers to open old, wooden, weighted windows) my dad had purchased in the 1960s from an old hardware store going out of business. (Being a child of a Depression-era parent, I could not get rid of these.) Intuitively, the recycled art idea came together, and I joyfully created a mixed media necklace using the escutcheon as a pendant holding words I’d cut from a vintage book “When a door closes a window opens” and adding brass chain, charms of pictures of closed doors and open windows encased in mica, glass lampwork beads, and a small key.

Oh, I don’t deny it: times are tough. But today’s challenges demand that we live our lives differently – more creatively – than we have in the past. A hand crafted life is when one follows one’s inner voice – that inner compass – in order to create a more self-satisfying and fulfilling life.

What hopes and dreams do you hold dear? What are you passionate about?

Serendipity of Three

Three Rules of Work:

Out of clutter find simplicity;

From discord find harmony;

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

-- Albert Einstein

I really admire Einstein. I know that's an understatement... and that I'm certainly not a maverick in this. I barely understand even the simplest of his theories. We all learned E=mc2 in grammar school (Imagine, the generation before mine didn't even study that!) Energy = mass x the constant speed of life squared. I was a good student and learned those phrases, even if I couldn't wrap my head around them. Well, I'm not alone in that, either. I have a wonderfully thick book on Einstein's life waiting by my bed to be read... where it has been for at least a year. (I promise I'll return it, Roy!) The first photo of the genius in the book is of him riding a bicycle! Einstein... while he spoke with the Universe, never let go of his inner child.

So this morning I received a daily message from CharityFocus which began with his Three Rules of Work. While I've been distracted from writing in my blog, I've also been waiting to have something worth actually writing about. This morning gave me that serendipity of three. Thanks, Albert!

Also, one of the newest crop circles in England is three circles connected and flowing one into the other with a smaller circle in each center. A beautiful graphic, but what's most interesting is that each of the center circles has a different lay of the grain, a different weaving, each as beautiful as the next. I've been fascinated by this intentional difference, wondering what the Energies were symbolizing in this variation of designs. (Or were they just having fun and showing off?) So, in honor of three's, I'm connecting each message to the other.

1. Out of clutter find simplicity

For a few months now, I have been distressed by the clutter in my life. I know that when my physical surroundings are in chaos, my mental state is disorganized. I've also been reminded time and again in various ways about the importance of Feng Shui and how our physical surroundings affect our own energy. I know that this physical clutter represents internal clutter. The greater the external chaos, the greater the internal chaos. So, with Andrew and Allen's help and a pull-myself-up-by-the-bootstrap effort on my part, I have started slowly nibbling away at all the clutter. (How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time...) It is all so overwhelming! I have written before what a packrat I am. But enough is enough! It IS time to lighten up. (Connie, thanks for your "electronic cow-prod" nudge!) My feelings are reflected in this quote from DailyGood: Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. -- William James. Boy, ain't that the truth!

I have been focusing on creating my jewelry over the past couple of months in order to meet some goals and timelines (shows, requests, etc.). This is an abundance of blessings for sure, but I have ignored other parts of my work in doing so.

One of those neglected areas is my bookbinding. I love binding books and creating journals, but there is no way to create jewelry and books in the same space: they require totally different tools and materials. So I haven't had the fortitude to put away all my jewelry work to indulge in my journals only to bring all the jewelry work back out once I've finished a couple of journals. So we have turned an adjacent room in our home into my book studio (talk about an abundance of blessings!). I'm very thankful for this space so I can indulge in both of my passions! Andrew and Allen have both helped me to start that shift. But, of course, that creates more clutter (it gets worse before it gets better). Further, I've been wanting the room arrangement to be comfortable from a practical and an energetic standpoint, and it has taken some time for the Muse to whisper what that set-up might be. But I know how I need the room arranged now... and now I need to go through all the accumulation to make that happen! (I'm not going to post a photo of THAT challenge!)

Yesterday morning, I woke up early with the Muse whispering "Get up and straighten up!" So I spent some time organizing my jewelry studio so that it would be conducive to finding what I am looking for. Whew! What a difference! I feel so much better now when I'm in here now! Cleared desktops, files in order, leg room, notes where I need them. Ahhhh! Now I feel pride and relief when I walk into my jewelry studio, which encourages free-flowing energy and creativity. Next is my book studio (as soon as I finish this post)!

2. From discord find harmony

One of the mental wrestlings I've been having is about attaining balance in my new business: balancing creating (jewelry and books) with marketing (blog, website -- still to be completed -- writing, etc.) with R&D (yes, even small businesses need to develop new ideas and learn new skills!) with inventory (purchasing materials for my art) with general paperwork (accounting, correspondence, etc.). No wonder I have felt overwhelmed!

So I arranged an hour phone call with life coach Adair Cates , author of Living with Intention which covers 6 areas of life and 10 steps to feeling fulfilled by them. Adair sent me a form to complete prior to our phone call so we'd have somewhere to start our dialog. Being a good student, I completed it... but wasn't really pleased with what I came up with. During that conversation with Adair, she suggested I consider using the term "harmony" instead of "balance". And what a difference that makes!

In some ways, I know balance is a moving target: one needs strong sea legs to maintain balance, shifting with the currents of life. And balancing the numerous roles we women play in life has been a focus of mine for a while now. What a challenge! It's like forgiveness: a one-shot effort doesn't do the trick, it's an on-going process. And on-going, and on-going. And I'm pretty rigid when it comes to how I'm approaching balance. (I know, that sounds like an oxymoron, but there you are.)

And while harmony is a challenge, too, it doesn't seem (to me) to be quite so structured, so demanding as the idea of balance. I like that; it gives me a break, a little wiggle-room. I don't know why there's a difference in my connotation of the words, but there is. It's as though harmony is inside and outside and flowing, while balance (as in scales) is more structured, more leveled. Maybe Justice is blind because she prefers harmony over those equally balanced scales she's holding....

So, now I am seeking to find harmony in what I do in my business. And the most recent way I have found balance was to rearrange my studios. And what harmony I find in my jewelry studio now (and my book studio very soon)! Ahhhhh....

3. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

This has been a difficult few months. Husband Andrew being away from home with his work, me becoming unemployed, son Allen leaving home (then returning after being arrested), and daughter Paige leaving home (that chapter is still unfinished).

However, there has been great opportunity for growth and learning in these times.

Andrew is looking for a job that will allow him to be home full-time. It's not easy, but it will come: the perfect work at the perfect time.

I have started my own "crazy quilt" business where I am incorporating the things I am most passionate about into what I offer to others: my artwork, my writing, my teaching, and my facilitation. I have been very blessed by the response to The Cre8tive Flow, and I am very thankful. And I am fulfilled with what I am doing (and learning how to be harmonious with it, too).

Allen had 180 degree turn-around after his return home from his 3-week adventure in March. He is accepting responsibility for his choices, and continues to grow. He has completed high school by earning his GED. He is driving now and looking for full-time work. He is compassionate for others (I could learn from him), respectful, kind, and thoughtful. He is strong physically and mentally. He is looking before he leaps. I'm proud of him and enjoy being around him.

Paige chose to go live elsewhere in May, and is making choices based on the most fun she can have right now. I send her prayers of safety and clarity whenever I think of her. Obviously, this is the path she needs to walk right now in order to learn the lessons she needs to learn, whatever they may be.

The main lesson I've learned over these past several months is to let go of control, and trust Spirit. This is The Big One for me. I certainly don't know or understand all the dynamics at work in my family of souls. I do believe that we are all together in this lifetime to help each other learn the lessons we -- at a soul level -- agreed we needed in order to grow closer to the Divine, and our own Divine Selves. A la Caroline Myss's Sacred Contracts. And the mystery and miracle is that learning my lesson somehow coincides perfectly with my loved ones learning their lessons; the lessons complement each other. Now THAT is mind-boggling. Wonder what Einstein would have to say about that?

Another lesson I've learned is that everything happens in perfect timing. I don't see the big picture, but Spirit does. And while I don't believe in predestination, there is a Divine Plan where Divine Timing works. That's another part of the mystery: we have free will, and it is in miraculous harmony with the Divine.

My mind is starting to feel fireworks and go "boomboomboom" as I start to try to comprehend what I've written, so I'm going to stop here so I can be practical and move into my book studio.

I hope you find simplicity, harmony, and opportunity in your day today.

Peace,

Kate

Dragonflies in the Summer

This amazing crop circle appeared in England a couple of weeks ago.

The circles this season seem to be quite different than in past years. This dragonfly (as well as the jellyfish which appeared around the same time) and other recent circles have amazing details that I've not seen in previous circles. Notice the wings of the dragonfly. While the wings are symmetrical and geometric, the lines within the wings are delicately different. So are the tentacles of the jellyfish.

And the body from this "tadpole", (for lack of a better descriptor).

And then there's this circle image of an egg being sought after by 8 sperm (again, my own label).

Now check out this latest circle: while swallows have been the design for other beautiful circles, this newest one is unique with what looks like code floating behind the swallow! I wonder what secrets those glyphs hold? And why are they associated with the swallow/bird? It looks like a kite taking flight. Bewildering and exquisitely mysterious!

For more crop circle info, check out Crop Circle Connector and/or Temporary Temples.

Summer is not my favorite time of the year. Heat and I are not good friends (and hormonal shifts don't help that relationship, either!). Andrew and I moved to the NC mountains from Charleston, SC, because we wanted to live in these green mountains as well as where there were four seasons. In Charleston, there were only 2 seasons: hot and hotter!

Even this recent crop circle seems to recognize the hot weather with a fan designed with crescents! Or maybe it's referring to our upcoming 3 summer eclipses.

A few years ago, I decided to create an altered book depicting the things I love about summer: the ripeness, the abundance of scents and flowers, the birds and the bees. An "altered book" is a book on one topic that you alter the pages/cover/etc. to make it about another topic. I found a wonderful book on the sun at a thrift store entitled The Fire of Life, published by the Smithsonian and re-titled it "Summer Solstice". Some of the pages I left alone because they were about the summer solstice (astronomy, legends and myths about the sun, etc.). Other pages, I altered by covering with decorative papers, rubber stamp impressions, photos, postcards, calendar art, etc. I even took multi-page articles from magazines (such as on the Monarch butterfly from an old National Geographic) and made them into booklets so that I included books within the books. It was a labor of love, and made the heat more tolerable.

Dragonflies played a role in that book, and they hold special images for me that associate them with summertime and warm weather. I remember as a young girl going with my mom once a month on a Saturday morning to the cemetary where her mother was buried. While she trimmed around the gravestone (and I'm sure "talked" with her beloved mother), I walked, skipped, and ran along the sidewalks criss-crossing the large, open land, reading the grave markers and stopping at the statues overlooking the grassy blanket of ground. I remember always seeing dragonflies hovering and flying around a large statue of an open bible. They were so beautiful and irridescent in the richest colors imaginable! They could hover, zip forward, glisten in the sun, and dart wherever they wanted... they were magical. Nature gifted the dragonfly with very special paint colors!

As an adult, I remember being led by dragonflies down a country road in Tennessee. Andrew and I were looking for mountain land to buy to retire to; this was outside of Nashville and dragonflies literally led us down the road to the entrance to the property. While we didn't buy that property, it was a procession to remember!

A few years ago, I was swimming in a nearby small, man-made lake. Dragonflies and damselflies of all colors were darting just above the surface of the water. After my swim, I sat on the dock and spent some quiet time looking into the water just below. There were fish languidly suspended below the water while dragonflies were flitting above the water; and then there was my reflection on the water's surface. It was appropriate that my reflection was between the languid, relaxed and the active, darting images.

In Native American medicine, Dragonfly symbolizes "Illusion". According to "Medicine Cards" by Jamie Sams and David Carson, "some legends say that Dragonfly was once Dragon, and that Dragon had scales like Dragonfly's wings." Can you imagine how beautiful Dragons must have been?

Also, "Dragonfly is the essence of the winds of change and the illusory facade we accept as physical reality.... messages of wisdom and enlightenment, and connection with the elemental world and nature.... If you feel the need for change, call on Dragonfly to guide you through the mists of illusion to the pathway of transformation."

I've been talking with a lot of different folks about the need for change and flexibility in these times. Yesterday, I heard some shocking statistics: worldwide, extreme poverty means that a family lives on less than $2 per day; moderate poverty means that a family lives on $3 per day. In the US, poverty levels are those where a family lives on $40 per day. Also, in underdeveloped countries, a person uses 20 liters of water per day on average. In the US, each person uses 600 liters of water per day! Indeed, these are times for change and for breaking through the illusion that we haveunlimited natural resources as well as the entitlement to use them all up! Dragonfly seems to be a suitable symbol for the changes we all need to make, and the illusions we all need to release.

One more dragonfly story: on Monday of this week, my son Allen was driving us somewhere and a dragonfly bounced into our car windshield and slid down into the windshield wipers. Allen asked if he should turn on the wipers to help set it free. I said I thought that might injure it more. So we pulled into a parking lot and Allen got out and gently helped untangle the dragonfly from the wiper. We were thinking it was already injured, so Allen had intended to place the dragonfly on the ground in the shade of a bush. But as Allen lifted the dragonfly from its entrapment, it lifted up out of his hands, hovered a bit, then flew off. The look of wonder and joy on Allen's face was a beautiful sight. I'm so thankful for dragonflies!

I hope today brings you positive change full of beauty.

Peace,

Kate

Blessed Summer Solstice!

Today is the Summer Solstice, the day of the year which has the longest daylight. Imagine how the ancients celebrated having so much light! The Dark Time of the Year was Winter Solstice, the day which was "the birth of the Sun", when the Sun began increasing in the number of hours it appeared to warm the cold places. Nowadays, our Sun heats our places and summer weather seems longer while winter season seems milder than when I was younger. Even living in the mountains.

To me, the solstices represent extremes: the most or least number of hours of daylight. This certainly seems appropriate this year. Often life in general seems to be on the edge... of disaster or breakthrough. While I'm very thankful for all of our blessings and abundance, I am also aware of the fragility of every aspect of our lives.

I have quoted Donna Henes' book Celestially Auspicious Occasions before, and I will do so again, because I think she says it so well:

The seasonal ascent of light and temperature is not -- despite popular belief -- due to our distance from the sun, but to the degree of directness of its rays. It would be logical... to assume that in the summer the earth approaches closest to the sun, and that we are farthest away in the cold dark of winter. Wrong! The earth reaches its perihelion, the point on our orbit that brings us closest to the sum, in winter (usually around Jan 2 or 3); and conversely, during summer (July 5 or so) we attain our aphelion, the farthest reach of our range from the sun.

Though the distance from the sun is greatest in the summer, it is at the Summer Solstice that the sun sits highest in the sky. The steep path of its rays is angled vertically overhead. Its energy is aimed arrowlike straight down on us.

The Summer Solstice is the height of the glory of the season of the sun. It is at this point that the dark must begin to creep back.... For several days before beginning its descent, the sun stands sentinel at dawn. It seems to stand stark still in the sky, which is what solstice means: "sun stands still". (Just) As we celebrate the birth of the brand-new sun at the Winter Solstice, we
salute its vibrant maturity at the solstice in the summer.

In megalithic times, people began to create structures that would enable them to track the course of the sun, the source of life. These solar observatories were specifically designed to give precise determination of the days of the solstices... that are the times of greatest extreme. It was necessary to calculate the longest summer day, since it serves as a signal light, a warning sign for changes in light and weather to come.

Indigenous Europeans... built many such sun shrines. Stonehenge, the most famous standing stone circle, has its main axis in perfect alignment with the Summer Solstice sunrise. Strikingly similar monuments to the movements of the heavens were built by the ancestors of the tribes of the Great Plains of the northern US and Canada... positioned in exact orientation to the solstice sunrise. There are more than 50 knowing medicine wheels, some dating back 2,500 years.


Summer Solstice is a holyday celebrated with fire and flame. Bonfires are lit in honor of the sun, perhaps the most universal of the celebrations. It is the ultimate act of flattery by imitation.... And at the same time, the light and heat of the fire serve to soothe and affirm that, though departing, the sun will surely return.


In ancient Egypt, the Summer Solstice was celebrated by the Burning of the Lamps in honor of Isis, Queen of Heaven. In Rome, the day was dedicated to Vesta, known as Hestia in Greece... guardians of the public hearth and altar. The Norse goddess Sol, Sul, or Sulis drove the chariot of the sun. Ancient Buddhist texts speak of the sun chariot as the Great Vehicle or the Chariot of Fire. The ancient Greeks pictured the Sun carried across the daytime sky in a golden chariot steered by Apollo (Artemis' twin brother; she was goddess of the Moon and the hunt).

The Hopi Summer Solstice ceremony perfectly describes this seasonal shift in terms of a transferal of our spiritual reliance on divine illumination to the realization of our own personal response-ability.

In the Dakota tribe, the Sun Dance was the most powerful observance of the year. According to Russell Means, a leader of the American Indian Movement and a survivor of the armed occupation at Wounded Knee in 1973 on the site of the Pine Ridge Reservation massacre of 1890, during the Sun Dance "we want to get in touch with the female, so we create purification ceremonies for boys and men to bring us to an understanding of what it is like to give birth.... During those four days and nights we do not eat or drink water so we can try to begin to understand the suffering of pregnancy.... On the fourth day we pierce our chests, maybe even our backs, to understand the pain and the giving of flesh and blood the woman goes through.

(Russell Means is also an actor who has played in many movies, including The Last of the Mohicans as the Mohawk father Chingachgook.)

Summer Solstice is a time of fertility and abundance (in the Northern Hemisphere, that is). The green of the plant world around us is riotous, as are the sounds of insects, birds, chicks, and thunderstorms. The heat and the rain collaborate to encourage astounding growth. The plants grow, luxuriating in the hothouse created by the weather and the insects feed on the plants and the birds feed on the seeds and the insects. It is the circle of life: birth, growth, decline, and rebirth.

I have found for myself and with friends that our lives often feel overwhelming and overabundant at this time of year. I think this is a reflection of the natural cycle going on around us. I also think that right now, there is so much going on in the un-natural world (based upon man-made decisions, changes, cultural habits, etc.) that it creates a chaos that all of us (human, animal, etc.) feel energetically, at a subtle but powerful level. Just watch the news or read the headlines and feel how your body is responding. Conversely, light a candle and sit and breathe quietly and notice how your body feels. Fragmentation vs. focus.

I hope you have had a chance to enjoy the sun and the peak of the light today.

Peace,

Kate

Time for Celebrations... Commencement

Last night, our 18-year-young son Allen participated in the graduation program for GED graduates at Blue Ridge Community College. While Allen didn't really want to participate because he was nervous about being on stage, he did participate (guess who suggested that he did?). After the commencement exercise was completed, he said he was glad he did.

That's what rituals are about: a physical manifestation of a rite of passage, a stage completed (or entered into), a tangible ceremony around an intangible process. Whether it's a wedding, a graduation, a baptism, or a funeral, ritual helps us acknowledge and better grasp what process has been entered into or what covenant has been made.


And commencement is so well named; it IS the beginning of the rest of these young people's lives. There were 46 graduates (out of over 200 for the past year) who walked the stage. While any form of academic graduation is important, I think this ceremony really was special. All the students who enroll in the GED program have been through some tough times in regular school, and their courage and tenacity to take this step is really something I admire. Allen enrolled and successfully earned his GED in 3 weeks! His instructors said that he was one of the fastest students they've had! And he was labeled a poor student in public school. While I was a public school teacher (decades ago) and I support public schools, the way school funders (government and public alike) consider the lack of value of the school system is obvious in the funding they allocate (or willingly pay via taxes) to the schools. And while throwing money at something doesn't always guarantee improvement or success, it will help. And when our schools have more funding, they can reduce the number of students in each classroom, and give the students the individual attention they need. *sigh* Don't get me started!


So we are really proud of Allen for deciding he was going to earn his GED in record time, and then doing it!

The most impressive part of the ceremony last night, however, wasn't the keynote speaker or the College speakers: it was when three of the class' graduates spoke about their experience and desire to enroll and complete the GED course of study and testing. Those stories brought tears to my eyes. All of them said how much they appreciated the encouragement and support they received from their parents and the course instructors. Two of the graduates are mothers (one of a 2 month old and one of a 5 year old) and being parents also spurred them on to accomplish this goal in order to be a better role model for their children. That's what responsible parents do: they try their best for their children.

I watched all the graduates who walked the stage last night, and felt pride for each of them. I'm sure some of them are the first in their family to graduate from high school. There are over 15,000 adults in our county who do not have their high school diploma. Hard to believe nowadays, but it's true.

I love the bumper sticker: "Think education is expensive? Try ignorance!"

Allen wants to go on to community college, and I hope he does. He has a couple of goals he has set for himself to complete before he enrolls in a program. And his parents will be encouraging and supporting him.

Here's a toast to all of us who have achieved a goal!

Peace,

Kate