Midsummer Abundance

Midsummer, Summer Solstice, Litha are the names by which we acknowledge and celebrate this season of the high summer sun. Just six months ago we celebrated Midwinter, Winter Solstice, Yule when the sun began his climb back into the sky, from the dark days in the season of rest and regeneration. In wiccan myth and story we speak of the sun at this time as the Horned God ruddy in his brilliance circling the sky in the bright heat of his fullness, bathing the land with light and warmth.

The land that lay so dark just a few weeks ago is bursting with growth. In my garden an abundance of colour and fragrance tumbles and cascades over fences. Foxgloves, canterbury bells, mock orange, honeysuckle, poppies and roses lift their blossoms to the sun for the busy bees to find their sweet nectar.

This abundance of growth and glory is echoed in the new season farmers' markets where I buy from the hands that grew and tended the food that will nourish me. This is such a blessing for us urban dwellers, to enjoy the fruits of the earth grown locally and freshly harvested. As I am fed in so many ways by this abundance of growth from the earth, I wonder how I might be asked to grow in this season. What areas of my life are needing attention that I might grow and flourish as the plants do, and bear fruit for harvest in the fall?