Quote for the day;

“So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,

And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!”

-   Susan Cooper, The Shortest Day

June Facts

• Birthstone – Pearl is known as the stone of wisdom. It helps elevate your spirits and self acceptance.
• Birth Flower – Rose -  Associated with healing, spirituality, love, protection and is believed to enhance ones psychic abilities.
• Summer Solstice is celebrated on June 21st.
• June was named after the Roman Goddess Juno.

Midsummer Eve was known as one of the three nights of the year when the veil between our World and the Otherworld grows thinner. It is said that faeries would join in the festivities, mingling with the human revelers on this special night.

So pull up a chair . . . relax . . . and enjoy this beautiful video.

“Where the water whispers mid the shadowy rowan – trees
I have heard the Hidden People like the hum of swarming bees:
And when the moon has risen and the brown burn glisters grey
I have seen the Green Host marching in laughing disarray”
- Fiona MacLeod

May the blessings of good fortune, health, and prosperity be yours.

“Welcome, with your lovely greenwood choir, summery month of May for which I long!” – Welsh, Fourteenth Century

“If we are “all creatures great and small,” from bacteria to whales, part of Gaia then we are all of us potentially important to her well being. We knew in our hearts that the destruction of a whole ranges of other species was wrong but now we know why. No longer can we merely regret the passing of one of the great whales, or the blue butterfly, nor even the smallpox virus. When we eliminate one of these from Earth, we may have destroyed a part of ourselves, for we also are a part of Gaia.

There are many possibilities for comfort as there are for dismay in contemplating the consequences of our membership in this great commonwealth of living things. It may be that one role we play is as the senses and nervous system for Gaia. Through our eyes she has for the first time seen her very fair face and in our minds become aware of herself. We do indeed belong here. The earth is more than just a home, it’s a living system and we are part of it.” – James Lovelock

April Fool’s Day: When was the last time you filled your day with fool-ish delights?

April Fool’s Day is one of the most lighthearted days of the year. There is something exciting about this time of the year, with the turning of the season from winter to spring that lends itself to joyous celebration.

Almost every culture in the world has some kind of festival they celebrate during the first months of the year. They were referred to as Renewal Festivals and often involved ritualized forms of revelry and celebration.

The ancient  Romans celebrated a festival named Hilaria on March 25. The Hindus celebrate Holi, also called the Festival of Colors, which they celebrated on March 11 of this year, and in Portugal, April Fool’s is celebrated on the Sunday and Monday before Lent. The tradition there is to throw flour at your friends.

April Facts

• Birthstone – Diamond is known as the stone of innocence. It  also cleanses and stimulates the crown chakra
• Flower – Daisy – Symbolizes childhood innocence and is historically sacred to Ostara, Freya, and the Greek Goddess Aphrodite.
• Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd.
• April is national Poetry month in the US.
• April was named after the Greek Goddess Aphrodite.