Prepare for the Solstice

The Solstice is less than a week away, and my habit is to have a week of summer fun to welcome the start of this amazing season.

Summer is the wonderful time when we get to slow down, sleep in, play with friends, go swimming, bask in the sun, eat ice cream, stay up after dark... let’s face it; all the best stuff happens in the summer! No matter how old you are, summer is a time to slow your pace and savor the fun and freedom. The shift from spring to summer is worth noticing!

Agenda: 

1. Love meditation

2. Practice a Reverent Way of Being

3. Read "A Book That Takes It's Time"

4. Plan a fun build-up to summer

5. Make Sima

6. Care for the bedrooms

1. Love meditation:

Every month after the full moon, in the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon, I practice a love meditation that progresses from receptivity, to gratitude, to generosity:

Day 3: Practice a love meditation, and then journal about generosity with time and attention - start with ideas for being generous with myself, then my family, my neighborhood, community, and the earth. I might decide to give money or a gift, or simple acts of helping and sharing my time.

From my journal: Today I commit to generosity with my creativity - I want to take more time for writing a book that helps people connect with nature in a different way; a Nature-Culture book for healing connections and shifting our paradigm .

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2. Practice a Reverent Way of Being:

Today I will again adopt a Reverent Way of Being for the days before this turning point of the year - which is to say, I try to be respectful and humble, and use a discipline of speech and thought that I find difficult to maintain for long periods of time.

Specifically, I try to be impeccably honest, and tell no little fibs. Also, I try to not gossip or say (or even think) anything negative about anyone. These are my worst habits, and it's useful to practice being virtuous for a few days at regular intervals throughout the year!

To remind myself, I wear this ribbon bracelet with the words: Reverence, Respect, Honesty.

3. Read "A Book That Takes It's Time":

This pretty book by Irene Smit and Astrid van der Hulst (2017) is part of "A Flow Book" series. Chapter 3 is Time to Create, about enjoying the process of making and writing.

I'm reading an essay called, "Take Just One Photo". The writer talks about the digital age and our habit of hoarding millions of photos. These become a new sort of burden. And taking them leads to forgetting to engage in the moment.

Photos lose their power when you have too many. Can I choose a few meaningful photos and delete the rest?

4. Plan a fun build-up to summer:

This week we plan a peaceful and varied kick-off to summer that includes some family-time, some friend-time, and alone-time, and plenty of time outdoors:

• Today I will celebrate summer with my creativity partner, making Sima together and talking about our projects.
• Tuesday is the start of Sun Camp with the grandsons; we will make strawberry shortcake and a sun weaving.
• Wednesday is library day and we will have ice cream cones.
• Thursday is Juneteenth and we go to the park, harvest herbs, and make potpourri.
• Friday is the actual Solstice and my day for recording phenology. (We will have our family celebration and fire on Sunday).

5. Make Sima:

Sima is a mildly fermented lemonade, a traditional Finnish solstice drink. 

I grew up in a west coast town with a largely Scandinavian population, where we had an annual festival at the summer solstice, with a Miss Denmark, Miss Finland, and Miss Norway. As a teenager I loved to go to the festival to polka, and line up to buy small paper cups of sima, for 25 cents.

Ingredients:

• 2 lemons 
• 4 quarts water 
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. white sugar + 1/2 c.
• 1/6 c. dark corn syrup 
• 1/8 tsp. dry yeast
• raisins

Yield: 4 quarts-

1- Boil the water in a large kettle.

2- Shave the yellow zest from the lemons, removing all of the bitter white under-layer. Also, peel the bitter under-layer off the lemons themselves, and slice them into very thin rounds. 

3- Put the zest and lemons into two large heat-proof glass bowls. Pour the boiling water over the lemons, and stir in the sugars. When the sugars have dissolved, cover and let the contents cool to room temperature.

4- When the water has cooled to lukewarm, add the yeast. Cover the bowls with plastic, leaving gaps or poking holes to allow carbon-dioxide to escape. Let the sima stand overnight, or 8-10 hours.

5- Place 4-5 raisins and a teaspoon of white sugar in the bottom of sterilized quart jars. Pour the sima into the jars, straining it through a sieve to remove the lemon.

6- Cap the jars tightly and leave at room temperature. 

SAFETY NOTE: Be sure to open the bottles at least once a day to release the pressure so the bottles don’t burst. The sima is ready to drink when the raisins rise to the top of the jars (about 3-7 days), but you can leave it a couple extra days to get the best fizz. Chill and serve!

6. Care for the Bedrooms:

My house care theme for the month is Basic Care and Zen Order. This means do the basics each week (sweeping, dusting, etc.) and find a zen balance of order that feels good.

I've been using this 2-step process for organizing stuff, from KC Davis' book:

1. Go systematically around a room and in each space, first put away everything that has a home, and gather everything with no home in one spot. 
2. Decide what to do with each of the unhoused items: Trash or find them a permanent home.  

This week I plan to:

• Clear the pile of papers on my dresser and refile or toss.
• Thin out my notebook-file shelf so I can find what I need.
• Sort through summer clothes and give some away.