Blooming hydrangeas
Sing Summer's song brightly:
We praise flourishing!
Hello Friends of Flying Needle!
Happy Grain Ripens!
- third summer solar node -
Hope this finds you well during these interesting times!
Seasonal Musings & Reflections
It is verdant here in the North Carolina Piedmont. Damsel flies and turtles abound. Whip-poor-wills call. Strawberries have come and almost gone. Hydrangeas and magnolias bloom. Traditionally scheduled schools are wrapping up. Outdoor pools are open. Summer is well and truly here. Yang continues to increase and expand heading to its peak expression, Summer Solstice, which will be here in just over two weeks. This is a time of flourishing.
Are you taking time to appreciate, and harmonize with the season?
For myself, the run of colder weather that just passed was both enjoyable and disorienting. I am actively reorienting to Summer. I had my first outdoor swim on Saturday. It's one of my favorite Summer practices. Since I don't swim indoors, I was super rusty. It's gonna take a minute to get back in swimming shape. My plan is to find the fun within that process.
For those of you who are moderately skilled swimmer's, like myself, you probably know the discomfort that comes with getting reconditioned to swimming. Generally, fun is not a word that folks use to describe it. Perhaps, play is a better word choice for what I am seeking.
In harmony with the flourishing exuberance of Summer, I am exploring ways to engage playfully with as many as aspects of life as I can. What I mean by engage playfully, is to participate with an open sense of curiosity, presence, and a willingness to appreciate the particular flavors of a phenomenon irrespective of the kind of phenomenon it may be. Anything, any process, can become an opportunity for discovery if we can loosen up our opinion about how and what it should be, and relate with it directly as it is. From this perspective, there's the opportunity to be in relationship with whatever experience arises with a spaciousness that allows us to perceive this unique creative emergence as a spontaneous work of art in collaboration between ourselves and the world. A playful game-dance-song, that we can participate in the making of, simply for the fun of it.
From this orientation, reconditioning for swimming shifts from a task to be endured to an opportunity to be explored.
If this approach resonates with you, and you play with it, or are already playing with it, I invite you to share your experiences with me.
My gratitude to Dare Carrasquillo for their work/play/art which helps me to refine mine with it's clarity, breadth, and depth. If you're curious about what they're up to check this link out. Broad, deep, beautiful, potentially provocative, and delightfully weird.
This node is also called Grain in Ear.
May your Summer days be filled with beauty, mystery, and friendship!
May you and your kin feel both rooted and free!
May we walk in gratitude with our Ancestors!
May all being and becoming receive nourishment!
Finding play within Arising experience - An infinite game.
Everything is Included. Root to flower. Sun to seed and back.
It is my sincere hope that you have found something of use in these words.
If you know folks who you feel would enjoy this newsletter, please forward it their way! Thank you!
Wishing you and all your relations wellbeing and good medicine!
With gratitude,
Taran