If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it.

~ Mary Oliver

In a very little while, the world will see me no more but you will see me,
because I am really alive and you will be alive too. … you are in me, and I am in you.

~ John, 14:20

(S)He to whom you pray is nearer to you than the neck of your camel.

~ The Prophet Muhammed

We, up here in the Northern hemisphere, are presently relishing the long days of Summer.  Midsummer, celebrated in poetry, theatre, and music reminds us to take heed, for with it comes a particular madness.

 

 

We see it in Nature – the thunderstorms, the fireflies, the tomatoes and squash and melons that nearly double in size overnight. When I wake up in these pre-dawn, July mornings, I feel the potential of the day, tugging at me with its plethora of ideas. I feel the sun, still beaming brightly at 5pm, making an early evening bike ride irresistible! The reaching expanse of daylight, or the heat – or both – offer an energetic pulse unlike any other time.

In the last 10 days I’ve had stirring conversations with a handful of friends and clients, all of whom have voiced a certain overwhelm regarding life’s possibilities: “I don’t know what I’m here to do,” and, “There are a lot of things I want, but I don’t know which of them I’m supposed to pursue.”

 

Can you relate to this?

 

You may recall my post from the Winter Solstice, when I spoke of my vision board, and the need to, “go in,” to consider what needed to be born. Now in its polar opposite, the Summer season invites an altogether different, yet complementary, invitation. Feeling some flavor of what my friends and clients were describing, I consulted my 2014 vision board to perform a Summer Solstice “soul-check.” Afterall, the year is half-over (I know, I know!) so what better time to undertake a thoughtful assessment? Much to my satisfaction, a number of the areas of my vision board have been fulfilled…or have evolved quite nicely. There are some other areas where, when I created the board, I was not sure what the images were telling me. To my delight, I am now sensing more of what they were calling me to do and to be in this period of my life. And still, there are spots that serve as poignant prompts – cues and reminders – for intentions I still want to become a part of me and my second nature.

 

Unlike the slow, careful laboring quality of Winter’s gestation process, our present moment invites us to stretch, spill over, grow! And here’s the great part…it comes without worry. I don’t mean that it’s impulsive (although Shakespeare and Woody Allen might disagree with me); what I mean is that we can rest into who we are and the movement that’s already alive in us. Different from urgency, there is an immediacy that graces this season…and we can indulge it with a second piece of watermelon as surely as we can respond to it when questions, fears or confusion present distraction.

 

Taking clues from the prayers embedded in my vision board, I’m connecting each day with what still feels unfinished. It’s not a problem to be solved, or a to-do list to tackle. It is a hole for me to fill…right now, with myself. In the warm immediacy of this long summer day, I can ask for help, I can rest in what is, I can become more of who I am and who I am becoming.

 

 

 

What is working right now? What is bringing you joy? What do you love? May you relax into what you are becoming!  You are in it, and it is in you. Amen!