Solstice prayers: we lit the candle, burned some evergreen and sage, talked to Bea about the return of the sun, and listened as she recited a verse about birds and stones and fishes and God
I think Death is a harbinger-- a sign of more to come
An ever-present friend who walks the path beside us from time to time
Until it's our time and then Death becomes the shepard, ushering us to the otherside
When I was younger, and someone we knew died, my family would always say "it happens in threes"
We would just wait... and the superstition mostly held up
One: Brandon's Soo Bahk Do instructor-- a man he's known since the early 2000s-- passed last week. This man has taught a lot of students, his presence was significant within the SBD community. And now the man who awarded Brandon his belts will watch from the otherside as Brandon award belts in the first testing of his own students on Thursday
Two: This cardinal flew into our window and died on impact Monday morning. We tried to have her taxidermied, but for legal reasons they don't work on songbirds. So we saved her for the lighting of the Solstice candle
Three: After a day of thinking about and stepping into the nuances of the birth/death portal (welcome to pregnancy as me!), my mom called to tell me someone who was one of her and aunt's best friends-- someone we spent a lot of time with during my childhood-- was murdered
She had a hard life. She tried her best to be kind and conscious with what she had. She wasn't perfect and hurt people and took many wrong turns, but no one deserves that type of ending. So irrevocable and heartbreaking
After losing most things in a fire, she gifted me with a laughing Buddha at a time when I really needed it. I was 13. She visited my nanny's house for dinner and brought me to her car to gift it. She said it helped her so it would help me. I still have it on our window altar
Anyway, this is what the Solstice time was/is for my people (Scots and Celts). A time when the birth of the sun would bring the souls of those we lost back to the otherside
With the rising and setting, I hope their journey is fruitful and they find stillness in the reunion
Much love to come
