Season of the May-Part 2

Pictures and words from then, though there is really only one present.

Notes are titled "The Whirlwind of the May"

from Bryan's birthday and flowers everywhere & lots of rain and easing schedules and stretching time and SAT's and torrential rain and exhausting work and weird out-of-retrograde stress catching at our ankles like ticks and we hardly slept and up at dawn.

Off to test and decorate and home and out again to sound-healing workshop and retrieve kid and overcrowded school event and too much sweets and no real food and home again.

Total cleaning and cooking and more cleaning and young girls arrive full of the energy of this season.

Gentle, friendly, beautiful helpful children grown.

Extra time gives space to think and feel and love and evolve.

Roast cooking in the new auto-cooker and cakes made and everything else ready

and late night for me talking with them, she so much like her mom, my friend,

but youthful in exuberance and spirit.
Renewal.

early morning, knowing little time alone, coffee, garden 

& girls up early (boys always sleep late)

making icing and making their beds and making oatmeal 

and absorbing the new day energy. 

Being the new day energy.

Made our fire while the girls were out walking. Him & me.

Old wet winter's greens gone brown and dry.

Shavings from Puck.

Small sticks.

Sparkling fire. Sparking fire

tending the fire while the busyness of the day unfolds

Young women and maiden energy. 

Icing made and drying the cake and just enough for all of it.
They arrive as the girls start to go, but then stay listening to Bryan talk.

The energy of the holiday so present.

Me & her, 2 joyful crones, sitting by the fire in the cold.
She gives me a beautiful beaded necklace.

I am sure we cackled.

Lilacs fill my hair and heart. It's all I can smell. 

I am sure there were blossoms in my nostrils.

I make the meandering teenagers (2 girls and 1 boy, 2 of whose births I was present at)
to help me unwind the Maypole bound since last year.
Loosing ribbons in the unraveling.
Gentle loving laughter in the dew-damp grass.

I was so grateful.

Girls leave, she arrives.
Memories of Beltane always have her playing banjo as we danced the Maypole. Especially joyful to gather again.

Finally she arrives painfully whole and ready
We are all family.

Should we start?

all good.

We are all connected.
We are all interconnected.

  
The liquid in us, the air in us, the tree in us.
We are so fortunate, honoring our good fortune.
Offering to the outsiders, even the fascists.
Prayers for nourishing & enough for all.
Each of us sacrificing for each of the kindred.
A good fire.

all the fortune cookies

Our Omens:

from the Ancestors: Perthro or Chance- the lottery cup
from the Spirits of Nature & Place: Daguz or Day- High Noon, Vantage Point

from the Gods & Goddesses: Hagalaz or Hail- disruption or perhapsa weather pattern

for the Season: Yera or year- a whole year's cycle of completion

Good waters.

Much thanks.
Super feast.

Long discussions.

We danced the Maypole with 5,

all the remaining (and oldest) folk at the end of the day
 which was how many ribbons were left exactly.
Teenager taking photos.

Laughter and silliness and kissing upon crossing.
Power of joyful communal dance on the earth.

We returned and talked more and each drifted
into a dream state.
Hail the May!

Season of the May- Part 1

Everything is beyond lush now. Bugs are plentiful. Days are eternal.

And there is no time at all.

We are on a constant roll of the next thing and the next

and at the same time
seeing each new flower and hearing every birdsong.

A moon-cycle of days the Maypole stood

and today we took it down.

The eggshell still underneath in the hole

now re-covered with the rocks that held the base

so firm and solid and vertical.

It often seems free-fall, but I think that is an illusion, like clouds in the distance.

It is about letting go with intent.

It is directional.

Do the trees wonder at their leaves?