We are on the threshold of welcoming our summer season and as we ready for this shift, I want to share a few ideas to prepare for your own summer rituals.
This year for me, summer means readying for a long vacation with my girls, more space in my schedule and lots of beach time ~ barefoot walks, nighttime moon gazing, and playing in the sand and sea.
To prepare myself for this new season, I like to honor the transition and create simple rituals to welcome what is coming.
Rituals are acts of intention, created from the heart, and practices of self love.
In the rituals we create for ourselves, we can explore and honor the spaces that need nurturing and healing, that need permission and acknowledgement, that need play and pleasure.
We build our rituals to strengthen our connection with ourselves and one another, to celebrate the blessings of our lives, to soothe us during challenging times, and to align with the magic and mystery of this human experience.
It is important to listen to your heart as you choose and create your own rituals. You already know. You already have everything you need. You already are enough.
One ritual I’ve practiced with my daughters for many years now is taking some time on the solstice or equinox to sit together and explore what we want to feel and experience in the season ahead. Generally, this means me writing down our ideas on a sheet of paper in a circle map. This sheet then becomes a tool throughout the season to remind me of our wishes, dreams and visions. Using this tool helps me focus my intention to facilitate and welcome what we desire into our lives.
Another practice for the first day of a new season is simply lighting a candle and setting an intention. Every act can be sacred if we make it so. Rituals and rites of passage, whether for the grand shifts in our lives, or for the seasonal shifts we experience, can be whatever we decide. What is essential is creating rituals that feel aligned and real and true for us in that moment and time. Simple is sacred, too.
This year has felt especially full of change and transformation for me. I turned 40, my first daughter turned 13 and promoted from 8th grade to high school, we completed our ninth year of homeschooling and my second daughter just celebrated her 9th birthday…lots of big shifts. So, in preparation for releasing the spring and welcoming summer, I’ve been deep in clearing, appreciating and letting go mode…I’ve literally sorted through every item in our home and intentionally chosen to either keep or thank and release each one. It has been quite a project and the experience has activated me with extra energy and clarity. The physical practice of clearing our space is a metaphor for the energetic and spiritual clearing we do as well. When we make space literally, we also create space in our minds and hearts for clarity and focus to welcome in what is next.
To honor and celebrate this summer solstice, I felt called to connect with dear sisters of the earth and will be holding an intimate gathering to honor and celebrate what has been, to let go of what’s ready to be released and to create space for what we want to welcome in this summer. This will include a sacred circle, smudging, candle lighting, sharing and an evening walk on the beach to integrate nature into our intentional connection.
Whether you choose to circle with friends or cuddle with your family or take a walk or light a candle or write in your journal or set an intention or have a good cry or watch a funny movie or cozy on your couch or reach out to someone who is struggling or give a hug or write a thank you note or gaze at the sky or move your body or take a hot bath or put your feet on the earth or listen to music or dance…whatever moves you to welcome this new season, remember to let it feel aligned and meaningful for you.
The summer is characterized by fiery, passionate, playful energy. This is the season of celebrating the abundance of spring’s growth and the fullness of our days. Summer is the season of play and wonder. Find ways to connect with this playful energy and to honor the child within you, whether through dance, exploration, or any activities that feel pleasurable to you.
At the same time, remember that even in the play and joy of summer, we all carry with us the grief of our life experiences and of the collective. While you invite and welcome the playful summer energy on this solstice, also give yourself compassion to feel all the feelings. To hold space for any grief that may surface and to include all of you in your ritual.
Even the simple act of breathing deeply, feeling the sensation of breath filling your lungs, holding this gift for a moment and then releasing fully, trusting in the next breath to come in just the right time. Even breathing, especially breathing…when done with intention, can be a ritual.
Find what feels aligned for you. And give yourself the gift of slowing down to savor this shift into summer, this welcoming of what is to come.
Like Nahko sings, “I believe in the good things comin’.”
I hope you do, too.
Love & Peace,
Denise
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