Summer Camp at Home

Our home is a summer camp for our grandkids, with raspberry picking and a wading pool, and lazy days of play. In the mornings we putter in the garden, collect the harvest, and play in the sand pit. On cooler summer days we venture out into the neighborhood for bike rides and park play, or if it's too hot, we lounge indoors with the heat pump on.

On days without grandkids, we get summer projects done, and enjoy our peace. Our home is our sanctuary, and in the lazy days of summer we get to truly enjoy it.

Agenda:

1. Read "Happier at Home"

2. New sand pit
3. Sky mural

4. Harvest raspberries

Maidyoshahem

The Zoroastrian community honors the six seasons of the year by celebrating six Gahambars; the word gahambar means "proper season". Each of these six festivals is celebrated for five days, and each honors one of the six material creations: The heaven, water, earth, flora, fauna and man.

Maidyoshahem (may-eed-YO-sha-hem) is the second Gahambar, the Midsummer Rain feast, and it takes place each year from June 29 to July 3. This Gahambar celebrates the creation of water on our earth, and the last day is called Tirgan (pronounced Teer-gone), in honor of Tir, the angel of rain. Iranians celebrate Tirgan with dancing, singing, and by swimming and splashing water on each other.

Agenda this week:
1. Recite a Prayer
2. Make a Persian Salad
3. Get wet!

June First Quarter Moon

Tonight is the first quarter moon; we are one-quarter of the way through the moon cycle. The moon is waxing - growing in light and energy, creating a time for decisive action.

I use this June quarter moon's energy to help me find a balance of simplicity and abundance - I am embracing the paradox of the expansive, free, effortless ease, and rich, complex, and vital profusion that is summer. 

Agenda Today:

1. Journal queries
2. Make a full effort plan
3. Write a mission haiku
4. Read the Creativity Book

Dragonboat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient Chinese celebration that always falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month of the Chinese calendar - that's five days after the new Dragon moon of May or June. It’s the third largest festival in the Chinese calendar, and it’s considered to be the start of summer. 

On this day everyone watches the spectacular dragon boat races, with the paddlers moving their oars in one fluid motion while the drummer thumps out a rhythm. The races might have begun as a symbolic way to encourage the dragons to fight in heaven and bring rain, so farmers would have good crops. Today, the races are held everywhere from Rome to Seattle, and if you are near enough to see them - how wonderful!

The Chinese call this the Duan Wu Jie (pronounced Dwan woo-oo Jee-eh) or Highest Meridian Festival. A meridian is a high point, as in the sun at the solstice. The Chinese celebrate the solstice today, according to a lunar calendar, so it varies every year. Traditionally this day is dangerous and unhealthy because it’s so strongly yang, putting the forces of ying and yang out of balance.

2018 xiangbao sachets

Agenda:

1. A Chinese chant

2. Make a xiangbao sachet

3. Make zongzi (dumplings)

4. Throw zongzi in the water

Summer Solstice

The season is turning. Today the sun exerts its maximum energy on our part of the earth; the powers of outward expression are at their greatest, and the powers of inner contemplation are at their lowest.

And of course, just as we reach the point of maximum yang energy, yin energy is reborn and begins to gain strength: The next days will each be a little shorter again, until the winter solstice in December.

Agenda:

1. Plan a fun first week of summer
2. Make a New Solar Disk

3. Harvest herbs

4. Make Kanelbuller (Swedish Cinnamon buns)

5. Make flower crowns

6. Build a Solstice Fire

New Dragon Moon and Abundance Retreat

Tonight is the new moon; the Chinese call the fifth new moon the Dragon Moon. Chinese dragons are a symbol of cosmic Chi, good fortune, and new beginnings, but the time around the Dragon Moon is strongly yang, with bright sunlight and moist heat. The Chinese consider this to be a dangerous and unhealthy season and they have customs to protect against the excessive yang energy.

I feel strong and effective when I am able to harness my yang energy to get stuff done, but I like to remember that yang's best aim is to protect yin, and yin's best function is to nurture yang; life is good when I have each in a kind of dynamic balance.

This week I will make an effort to bring a balance of restorative yin energy to my life: Slow down, rest well, drink more water, and practice ‘discipline of purpose’.

Agenda:

1. Retreat Day plan

2. Read "It's a Meaningful Life"

3. Mantra practice

4. Choose a month theme

5. Set intentions

6. New moon altar and meditation

7. Blessings Walk

Creative Anxiety

Creative anxiety is sneaky: It dresses itself up and hides out. You would think at my age I'd be able to recognize it quickly, but here I am, dealing with it again.

When I get sloppy with the art-work I'm doing, and begin to turn out messy, meaningless pieces, I forget that it's anxiety at the root and not that I've lost my touch. When I begin to feel lethargic and put off doing the work of art-making, sometimes for weeks, I forget that it's anxiety at the root and not laziness, or busy-ness, or disinterest.

When I face up to my anxiety, then I can make a plan.

Creative anxiety agenda:

1. Read the Creativity Book

2. Set an intention for summer creativity

3. Do the smallest thing

4. Lifeboat drill

June Third Quarter Moon

Photo by Alan Gillespie

Today is the Third Quarter Moon: This waning moon energy is yin - quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness. At this phase we can ease off a bit on actively pursuing goals, slow down, go within, and attend to inner work and self-care.

Agenda today:

1. Read "Happier at Home"

2. Renewal plan

3. Evaluation House

4. Monthly journal brainstorm

5. Surrender, rest, recuperate

The June garden

The June garden is pure abundance. It's too late to plant most summer veggies now in my valley, and too early to start fall crops, so my focus is on garden care - watering, weeding, mulching - and on HARVEST.

We have kale, lettuce, parsley, rhubarb, bok choy, and soon we will also have peas, raspberries, and strawberries to harvest. 

Agenda:

1. June permaculture plan

2. June planting tips

3. Squash bugs

Full Strawberry Moon

Tonight is the full moon called anishnalya, the "camas ripe" moon by the Kalapuya of our area, and the Strawberry Moon by others.

We are now at the peak of the strong-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, and will soon begin the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon. 

Agenda:

1. Take a vision walk

2. Celebrate synergy

3. Read Happier at Home

4. Synergy with my garden

June Transition

June is a transition month - the end of spring and the beginning of summer. June’s element is fire, which purifies and gives life. It’s a highly yang time of movement and power, the season of completion, abundance and fulfillment. I have a hope that in summer I will reach the full flowering of my self and my dreams. 

June has a different pace, less scheduled though more active. It’s a time for fine-tuning, and for decisive action. June is when I like to energetically climb to the top of a hill, survey the landscape and climb down again, to put myself in context, evaluate my progress, see what I’ve accomplished since January, and make careful adjustments in my goals and priorities. 

My aim this month is to stand still and calm in the center while I am playing, cleaning, writing, socializing, teaching, digging in the garden, swimming, traveling, and painting. 

"Only when there is stillness in movement can the spiritual rhythm appear which pervades heaven and earth." -- Taoist text

Agenda:

1. Journal queries

2. Word #8 - Submission

3. Ray of Sun Meditation