What a Solstice! I remember a lot of dull grey Solstices, and the odd changeable one. I remember a Solstice ceremony with thunder and rain. But this year we are blessed with bright blue sky and hot sunshine. It really feels like the heart of Summer.

I am fortunate that I am able to celebrate this Solstice in style. After a very intense 3 months of work, I have time off. Even my social calendar has miraculously cleared for a week or so. And I have given myself a 5 day internet fast: no surfing the internet for 5 whole days. Which, I have to say, is sheer bliss and is giving my brain the rest it needs and deserves. All of these things mean that I really have time to notice and appreciate every moment, to savour every detail of life as it happens. I am celebrating life as the world around me blooms and flourishes.

These last few months, since my 40th birthday, the goddess has drawn me into a closer relationship with her. This goddess hasn’t got a name. She is older than the stones. She is starlight and sunlight, and the darkness that holds these. Our far ancestors honoured her with temples that let in a shaft of light from the rising sun at certain significant times of the year. She has whispered to me: ‘I am your bones’.

Yesterday, on the longest day of the year, I was thinking about what that means: devotion to a goddess; devotion to Life itself. As is usual for me, I was spinning stories about how I could do it. What practices and meditations and prayers I could devise to give shape to that devotion. I was tying myself up in knots of complication. And then I heard her voice again. And she was laughing.

Of course she was. Because it is so simple. Devotion to Deity, to Spirit, to Life, whatever name you call it by and whatever face of it inspires you and draws you into relationship, is no more than simple presence. As I am present to every passing moment, the goddess is present through me. She is my bones. When I am present, so is she. This is the service of devotion she is asking of me.

Such presence inevitably leads me to celebration. Especially under this high clear sunlight, with the roses in bloom and the lush green all around, every moment of presence is a moment of wonder. Each breath brings a sense of ‘waaaw’ and ‘oooooh’. And I smile for the beauty of the world.

Of course, that is not all there is. There is plenty of suffering and pain in the world. These things also ask for my attention and presence. The goddess wishes to be present with all of life, every single texture of it. She holds it all in the darkness of her womb.

Yesterday I celebrated with a walk and a ceremony on Stanmore Common, and with a 5 Rhythms dance. As a result, I have six huge mosquito bites on my hand and knees, and a blister on my right big toe. These sensations are part of my rich tapestry of life just now. They are some of the hazards of being alive in a body. It is life. It is beautiful. It is ‘waaaaaw’.

Happy Solstice!