Happy summer!
It’s been awhile since I’ve reached out to connect with my readers, so I’m writing today to wish you well, share a little news from my life, and offer a poem for summer.
While officially summer begins tomorrow in the U.S., according to Celtic Cosmology, we’re already deep into summer. In fact, in the ancient way of reckoning, “midsummer” comes in just a few days, on June 24th.
That we’re already half-way through summer feels right to me, as the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, changes and shifts in our family–and we’re now less than two months away from the date we’ll drop our oldest off at college.
Our daughter Maddie graduated from high school in mid-May with clear purpose and excitement about her next phase of life. We are thrilled for her and I have to admit being a bit melancholy too, as I will really miss her insights about life, her humor and her companionship once she’s gone. For now, we are relishing the time we have with her and feeling privileged to support her in planning and dreaming.
Our youngest, Bridget had a big milestone too, finishing up at middle school and getting ready for high school next year–she turned 14 this week!
A few weeks after the girls finished the school year, my husband David’s mom died after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s. Our family has been dealing with all the emotions and activities that accompany such a huge letting go.
Through it all, I had some sort of respiratory virus that was teaching me (again) about humility and acceptance, releasing control and being tender with myself.
Mercifully, I was almost fully recovered by last weekend, when my Mom and I facilitated a Celtic Wisdom retreat for 50 people here it St. Louis. It was so much fun to work with Mom, and connect with many wonderful spiritual seekers, and it heightened our excitement about our upcoming retreat in Ireland.
This week I’ve been relaxing into the open space and ease of summer, celebrating birdsong and bike rides, the lazy afternoons reading on the porch and watching the fireflies come out at twilight all the sweeter in the wake of David’s mom’s transition and our heightened awareness of how brief and precious this life really is.
Yesterday I got to see a baby robin leave its nest under the eaves of our front porch. Its mother seemed to be celebrating, swooping down to offer the new flyer food and encouragement. I thought, of course, about Maddie getting ready to leave for college. I’m also smiling at the thought of the Universe as a mother bird, celebrating each of our milestones in life, including that huge transition to the other side of the veil.
I like to think that we are never truly alone, that for each letting go and moving on there are guides and guardian angels, ancestors and saints, faces of God beside us, behind us and before us, sending us on and cheering us along and welcoming us into our new stages of being.
So with that in mind, I offer you this celebratory poem called Samhradh (Irish for summer). I composed it in the style of the ancient Irish “I AM” poems honoring the many ways the Divine shows itself to us.
Samhradh
I am the smile of the lover,
I am the infant at the breast,
I am the beckoning horizon
I call the fledgling from the nest.
I am the sweetness of the berry,
I am the alchemy of yeast,
I am desire and consummation,
I am the music at the feast.
I am the light that shines in darkness,
I am the wisdom born of pain,
I am the power of transformation,
I am the Everlasting Flame.
I am the flower of compassion,
I am spirit come to earth,
I am the healing of all that is broken,
I am the effervescent mirth.
copyright 2012, Kimberly V. Schneider
summer in Ballyvaughan, County Clare, Ireland
May we all savor this abundant season!
Many Blessings to you and yours,
Kimberly
The Manifestation Maven
