On Saturday sixteen friends and neighbors – Earth Pilgrims, all – gathered here at Lightspring Glen to give thanks for Summer’s blessings and welcome the new season. And as was true for the Barn Christening in June, many more attended in spirit, so we were a lively crowd. As the westering Sun settled gracefully behind the hemlock wood…we were glad for our warm jackets…we shared a meditative walk on the rope labyrinth I’d laid out that morning, a barefoot Spider Woman. Here on the gentle slope of Richardson Hill, the stillness of the Equinox afternoon was softly edged with the stream’s murmuring flow, spilling happily down the waterfall’s cascade at the end of the pond and slip-sliding off through the Glen towards Willow Brook and on to the Susquehanna ten or so stream-miles away.
We spent unhurried time walking the labyrinth together in companionable silence and wandering the wood’s edge carrying thoughts of love and healing prayers for the waters of the Earth. I’d asked each person to bring to their mind and heart a river, stream, or body of water they particularly loved. Mine, of course, was right there beside us. 
And we spent time too recalling the blessings of our summers, what gifts the season had brought us, and offering thanks for all these. Around us the Standing Ones of Lightspring Glen, the hardwood trees, were busy with their own seasonal work, their slowing in-breath of CO²…yes, our out-breath…and preparing to release their hard-working green leaves beginning to show their annual celebratory colors hidden beneath the chlorophyll. Oh, what ordinary wonders are all about us every day!
I pondered these thoughts as I joined my friends on the labyrinth’s circular, spiral path, grateful for my companions of this day, grateful for the companions of another beautiful labyrinth walk in mid-August in northern New Mexico at Ghost Ranch. The incredible blessings of my Summer danced in my heart and soul as my bare feet trod the damp and cool grass. So very much…so very much…to be grateful for.
Ceremony completed, we trooped back inside, glad for the indoor warmth, and shared a marvelous potluck supper with sweet and generous helpings of warm conversation (or maybe it was dessert…!). For those who stayed on, there followed an hour’s wonderful drumming in the Barn, our enthusiastic efforts warming us against the evening’s deepening chill. 
By the time we blew out the candles and turned off the lights, a huge, nearly Full Moon was rising over the trees in her silvery majesty lighting our way down to the house and then guiding each one home through the last hours of Equinox.
Drifting off to sleep much later that night, nearly midnight, the Moon generously strewed her bright beams in on me. I gave thanks for the sweet and marvelous day it had been and for my three friends who had stayed over and were drifting to sleep with me under my roof. More delights on the way in the morning.
And there is another part of this story to tell of August’s labyrinth and my fellow travelers there and of our shared days at Ghost Ranch. I will share that tale in my next Earth Pilgrim post. For now, this exquisite poem of Rumi’s and a most fabulous photo will hold open the Door to that landscape of Soul. Stay in touch!
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the door sill
Where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.
The calendar reports that this is the 12th of June. Summer Solstice, the mid-point of the year’s Wheel, is only eight days away. In today’s bluest of blue skies, the midday Sun is nearing its zenith with the just-about-new Gemini Moon close behind…..tomorrow it will be exact. Bird-life is bustling all about, the Starling fledglings launched earlier this week from their nest in the eaves of my neighbors’ house. Our door yards are now somewhat quieter without their hungry clamoring from sun-up to sun-down for those three weeks and a bit more. And after the longest wait and a bit worried I’d not hear them this year, the days on Richardson Hill once more begin and end with the enchanting songs of the Wood thrush and the Hermit thrush. 
The day of Hearts and Cupid arrived this year with a wintry flurry of events, some cosmic and some chillingly earth-bound. The Aquarius New Moon / Solar Eclipse occurred the day after Valentine’s Day with Chinese New Year close on its heels welcoming the Year of the Earth Dog. But on 2018’s Day of Love our open hearts were shattered by horrific mayhem in yet another public school…seventeen people, students and faculty, gunned down. My intention to pen a Valentine for Mother Earth that day felt pointless, futile, even though a small voice gently prompted the timeless mantra that guides me to “be the change you wish to see in the world”. 
