.june on an island.

To know a place like this
Waiting patiently for me to returnJust as it does for all the others it nourishes
Giving rest, permission, beauty, tenderness, slowness
Space to roam
Unkept overgrown trails
Offering itself undistrubed
Space to explore
Often alone
Just one-on-one conversations with the nature of here
a softness emerges within me
And I’m reminded of my tenderness

How to slowly start a day,
never before 9, best if you wait till 10
Start a fire
Drink coffee and tea
There’s no rush
Walk or ride a bike
Find the benediction monestary with the unlisted address
Sit in the chapel
Or attend vespers to hear the memorized psalms in Latin
I wonder how many times they’ve prayed these words in their life
Awkwardly trying to follow when to bow and sit and stand
Come back to start another fire
The day is ending but the light will go on
In June the days seem to stretch to very edge and beyond almost crossing the days with nights
With the blue light of dusk illuminating the lapping waves and nearby islands until well after 9 and the dawn quickly arriving some time just after 4:30
It won’t last long, the stretched days of June
Maybe I should
Just stay up
Go for another paddle on the calm water
The ferries are docked and the fishing boats are home
to glide on the open waters in the golden light but
my eyelids are heavy and the fire is out
One more island day

The world is on fire
I hope, even amongst the destruction + dehumanization, that you can find moments of peace and joy to nourish yourself
For the collective work, we are all being called to do to rebuild and reimagined who we are and who we will become

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and such fitting words from Mary Oliver:

On Traveling to Beautiful Places

Every day I’m still looking for God
and I’m still finding him everywhere,
in the dust, in the flowerbeds.
Certainly in the oceans,
In the islands that lay in the distance
Continents of ice, countries of sand
Each with its own set of creatures
And God, by whatever name.
How perfect to be aboard a ship with
Maybe a hundred years still in my pocket.
But it’s late, for all of us,
And in truth the only ship there is
Is the ship we are all on
Burning the world as we go.

.8:48 sunset.

The sun will set at 8:48 PM tonight. Maybe it's been a few days now that the sun has set before 9 PM but it just hit me today, the light is already fading. Of course it is, but seems like summer fades so fast. Just a few weeks ago I was getting off the river on an extended paddle trip with still enough light at 9:45 PM. There's still summer left, but the shift has started. It makes me reflect on how I'm holding presence in my days - absorbing the now. 

I just finished a quilt I named "The First Day of Summer" inspired by summer solstice. It's a super minimal lap quilt playing with scale and the log cabin quilt pattern. I love it. It's so simple and holds so much energy. Here are pictures of the front and back of the quilt. This has been the second project where at the beginning I had a more elaborate plan and then decided to simplify. It's enough. It's not that I want to be done with the project, but I know that the project is done. It's been beautiful to witness and learn from to let it be enough. To appreciate and release it. 

 I've had so much energy for quilting in the past few weeks. I finished this project and immediately started a new project playing with two colors and the basket weave pattern. It's other strip design. It's another iteration of the same foundation. It's been too hot in the jewelry studio the past few weeks and the focus on just fiber reminds me of the different teaching of each material. 

.summer solstice.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, a chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.”       

-Mystic Mama

I love summer solstice. The longest day of the year. The beginning of summer. A beautiful transition. A time to reassess where I am, the choices I am making, the direction I am sending my energy, the now. Another refresher to open our eyes again and start anew - to remember we are brand new. 

This moment. We are brand new. 
This season. We are brand new on this journey.

I remind myself today to think abundantly. 
To fully commit to abundant thinking!

I started this summer season by working on my new two wheels, the summerset.