Spell Ingredients for Summer
Happy Summer Solstice to you!
Whether you know it as the longest day, Litha, Midsummer, etc, there is definitely some magic in the air today.
Though it is technically ‘Midsummer’, the Summer Solstice always feel like the beginning of the season to me. We live by the sea and after the Solstice means that school is out and our little town becomes a haven of young families and beach goers.
I won’t lie - usually I get a little frustrated by the tourists. The shops sell out of everything that you’d want to eat on hot days like fresh fruit and cold drinks. Our street, only a couple of roads away from the beach front, fills with cars parked haphazardly in every available space.
But how can I be mad at people getting a taste of what I ignore most of the year around?
It wasn’t always this way. A few years ago, my parter and I got into the habit of walking out to sea nearly every weekend. This may not seem like far but we have one of the most varied tides in the UK. You could walk for a literal mile or more, plodding carefully through sinking sand, lured by the shush of the waves until you reached it. Other days, you’d set off ready to hunt the tide and it would be soaking into your shoes immediately. It did not matter what the weather was like. We walked in sunshine. We walked in hail. It was just this overwhelming urge to meet the sea.
Can you guess my first spell ingredient?
Meeting the Waves —
I want to feel like a tourist again in my own town. I want to picnic at the seaside. Take a blanket and read my library book on the beach. I want to be lured to the water by the sound of the waves. Let the water envelop my feet and my toes spread in the sand. I want to remember that I live by the sea. I want to live by the sea.
Remembering What it is All For —
Work has been intense for at least 6 months, maybe almost a year. It’s requiring a lot more brain power than usual which means that I then have less once work is done for the day. Things I like doing - writing poetry, crocheting, setting up more framed poems for my shop - then all drop off to nothing. I’m in a downtime drought. However, this last week, I wrote a poem in the margins of my work diary and it lit up my brain. It made me remember that I am not just my job title. I cannot forget that being creative is what this is all for.
Making Peace with Fire —
I have written before about needing more fire in my life... Then deleted them because I can never keep that flame burning. Movement and heat are not things that come naturally to me. I’m clumsy and out of practice. Even slow and steady movement like yoga (which I love every time I do!) is difficult for me to do with any consistency. I am by no means old at 33 but I’m definitely feeling time pass. My dad passed away at only 66. If I am only allocated the same amount of time, I want to make the next half of my life one of strength and warmth.
Maybe I won’t be dancing naked around a bonfire with my best gal pals but a girl can dream.