This was a day of celebrations. This was a day to celebrate! A gorgeous breeze filled sunny day hovering just above 80 degrees with wide blue skies and tall clouds. It was a day of traveling up and down interstate 91 to Massachusetts and back; a day of new friends and of old; of rituals and food; of prayers and faith.
My new friend Daphne celebrated her new phase of life as a middle aged woman in menopause with grown children who have left the home. It has been a painful and difficult passage through a tunnel, as she described, filled death of parents, illness and self doubt, but also of rising confidence and strength as she realizes this is now her time. After all the sacrifices as wife and mother she stated her readiness to own her time as a human being. She invited 13 close women friends to celebrate her "croning" including her young daughter who sang and played the fiddle and her sister who cast the circle. I was the newest friend and was deeply honored to be be present.
I spent the last few days working on a large basket, my second - which came out lumpy, but soft and filled with white and natural colors. I felt a compulsion to make the basket and fill it with flowers though we were told to only bring one from our garden to add to her bouquet. When I arrived at her lovely small red farm house I understood why. 14 chairs were set in a circle on the back lawn around a rudimentary alter with stones, a candle and a bird's wing. The basket was meant to go in the center of the circle representing the container of all that was about to happen.
Present were several shamanic women and healers. A smudge pot and a fire were lit and tended during the entire two hours of ritual. Once the circle was cast to the north, east, south and west acknowledging the elements of air, water, fire and earth, Daphne spoke the story of her life as a woman, wife and mother. After so many travails in life and marriage and so many questions about herself and her relation to spirituality that not one of us could remain outside the circle. Her words seemed to give voice to a common experience we all knew in our bodies, and while granting her this moment of individuality and coming into her own, we also shared in it. It was a powerful experience I will never forget.
As if this were not enough I then had the momentous celebration of our nation to attend back in NY with old friends on the Hudson River overlooking the newly constructed Tappen Zee Bridge. In all directions - North, South, East and West we saw lights flaring and skies blooming and booming with light like stardust.
As far south as the East River in Manhattan. Nyack to the West and North. Irvington and Dobbs Ferry to the south. And our own magnificent show beside the bridge in Tarrytown. Despite the current challenges to our constitution; the raggedness of truth and decency by what some deem to be leaders - the foundations of this country, despite real and dividing flaws - is firm an admirable as an ever evolving experiment in which we can have a real hand. What a contrast to many other parts of the world where they cannot count on such freedoms.
Happy Fourth!
My new friend Daphne celebrated her new phase of life as a middle aged woman in menopause with grown children who have left the home. It has been a painful and difficult passage through a tunnel, as she described, filled death of parents, illness and self doubt, but also of rising confidence and strength as she realizes this is now her time. After all the sacrifices as wife and mother she stated her readiness to own her time as a human being. She invited 13 close women friends to celebrate her "croning" including her young daughter who sang and played the fiddle and her sister who cast the circle. I was the newest friend and was deeply honored to be be present.
I spent the last few days working on a large basket, my second - which came out lumpy, but soft and filled with white and natural colors. I felt a compulsion to make the basket and fill it with flowers though we were told to only bring one from our garden to add to her bouquet. When I arrived at her lovely small red farm house I understood why. 14 chairs were set in a circle on the back lawn around a rudimentary alter with stones, a candle and a bird's wing. The basket was meant to go in the center of the circle representing the container of all that was about to happen.
Present were several shamanic women and healers. A smudge pot and a fire were lit and tended during the entire two hours of ritual. Once the circle was cast to the north, east, south and west acknowledging the elements of air, water, fire and earth, Daphne spoke the story of her life as a woman, wife and mother. After so many travails in life and marriage and so many questions about herself and her relation to spirituality that not one of us could remain outside the circle. Her words seemed to give voice to a common experience we all knew in our bodies, and while granting her this moment of individuality and coming into her own, we also shared in it. It was a powerful experience I will never forget.
As if this were not enough I then had the momentous celebration of our nation to attend back in NY with old friends on the Hudson River overlooking the newly constructed Tappen Zee Bridge. In all directions - North, South, East and West we saw lights flaring and skies blooming and booming with light like stardust.
As far south as the East River in Manhattan. Nyack to the West and North. Irvington and Dobbs Ferry to the south. And our own magnificent show beside the bridge in Tarrytown. Despite the current challenges to our constitution; the raggedness of truth and decency by what some deem to be leaders - the foundations of this country, despite real and dividing flaws - is firm an admirable as an ever evolving experiment in which we can have a real hand. What a contrast to many other parts of the world where they cannot count on such freedoms.
Happy Fourth!
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