The Medicine of Summer: on Beauty, Flowering, and Shining your most Authentic Self

Well, here we are having crossed into the threshold of summer.  I don't know about you, but Solstice felt so good this year. Seeing, feeling and experiencing the healing light of the sun within and all around me was just like sweet water, sweet medicine on a soul and a body that can sometimes be weighed down by the heaviness and the complexity of the world.

The solstice this year reminded me that everything is always changing, the wheel is always turning, every season dies and rebirths a new one. When the light is here, when the beauty is here, when the warmth is here, my job as a creature that is alive on this planet is to enjoy it, to revel in it, to celebrate it. To allow myself to become intoxicated by its beauty, by its wonder, and to allow the healing rays of this time of year to melt away the echoes of intensities and complexities that are still here, if only for a moment, a day, or a season.

That, my beautiful friends, is the medicine of summer. I offer it to you as a blessing and a prayer to the summer in your heart, to the beauty that you are, to the majesty that life created you as, and to the unique expression of this creation that only you are, only you bring.

I often like to reflect on the meadow-scape, the flower-scape, of this time of year as I think about all of the different flowers that nature produces right now. Summer time is, after all, the time of flowering. Compare the flower of a Dogwood to that of a star flower to that of a calendula to that of a digitalis foxglove. They are so different, and each one so beautiful that there almost aren't words to describe the magic of it. I want you to know that the same is true for you and me: each one of us is also a flower in the garden of life, a unique expression, a miracle that was spun into physical form in and on this Mother Earth, this dream world. When we all unabashedly and authentically express, embody, and surrender to that shine that is already within us, we paint the world beautiful.

So at this time of summer, I pray and hope that you can shine just a little brighter, that you can express just a little bit more authentically. Maybe that has to do with sharing a creative project or a story, wearing an outfit, cutting your hair, offering a performance, or carving out a new garden to birth these visions that have been in you. Maybe, just maybe, you are seeded by the earth in her dreaming times to share and paint more beauty in this world. I hope that you do, because when you do it is a blessing to us all.

I want to share a passage from my book, Seasonal Herbalism, A Beginner's Path to Medicine Making and Dreaming with Mother Earth, that comes from the beginning of the summer section. As you know, if you've read my book or have followed my work for a while, I am so passionate about realigning with the seasonal rhythm, the seasonal march of this Mother Earth. She is marching around the wheel anyways! And because we are in no way different or separate from her, we too are on that seasonal march. As she is going through summer, the flowers are going through summer, the animals are going through summer, the humans are going through summer… we too are summering, we too are flowering, we too are shining. Seasonal herbalism helps us to learn, practice and deepen into an herbal walk throughout the wheel of the year. As we walk the herbal walk, we also grow in our life walk and in our relationships with life itself.

So here you are dear ones, a blessing on your summer from seasonal herbalism:

“Come with me and let's take a walk on this beautiful sunny summer morning. As we step outside, the sun's healing rays warm up our skin. We feel a rush of excitement in our hearts and a brightening of our spirits. For as the sun shines, it reflects the shine we feel inside. The desire to get out there and live, to be beautiful and to “in-joy” the blessing of being alive. All of this courses through our veins as we close our eyes and breathe in the goodness of this moment.

Life is good. Life is light. All that exists is this present moment-- And that, dear ones, is the blessing of life and the medicine of summer.

We've only just began savoring the goodness of the sun's healing on our walk before more excitement catches us. The roses have bloomed! There they are fractaling, unfurling spirals of pure divine Creation with an aroma that is no less than the scent of the heavens. We bury our faces in the petals, inhaling deeply. How does the Creator accomplish this feat of beauty, we wonder?

As the scent of rose divinity wafts through our consciousness, we feel our higher spiritual centers blossoming open. “Yes, dear ones, I am beautiful,” our minds hear Rose say. “And you are too! You too are the divine dance of creation unfurling herself, and you too are this holy, sacred expression of creation. Don't let the thorns of life distract you from this remembering, for the thorns are an essential part of the beauty too. You must accept and be the beauty when the beauty is present, as it is here and now.”

Our hearts open so wide from the downpour of spirit energy that the Rose has unlocked within us that a tear of divine overwhelm falls from our eyes. “Life is good, I am beautiful. This is so,” we hear as our hearts remember the great gift we are given to be alive on this earth, and the pleasure of being alive floods our cells.

“Thank you, elder sister, for this healing,” our hearts beam to the roses, “How can we give back?”

“Be the BEAUTY that you are,” she responds. “Shine bright no matter what. Share your beauty in this world. That is, in fact, why you are here.”

We close our eyes and breathe with rose, exchanging our heart energy in a moment of pure, sensual presence.

So what is the spirit medicine of summer? Well, let's explore that.

Summer is a time for be-ing. Summer is the time to revel in the raw experience of life at its fullest, the time for shining and sharing all that we are. Summer is for dancing, playing, singing, expressing, celebrating, and ritualizing the goodness of life. Summer is the time for being present with what is, embodying fully all that is within us while we drink deeply of life's blossoming all around us.

Summer is a time of fertility. Biologically speaking, plants make flowers in order to reproduce. Flowers encase the reproductive structures of the plants. So, in a very real sense, plants make flowers in the hopes of getting laid! The plants have evolved the breathtaking beauty, intricate designs, and intoxicating aromas of their flowers as a means to attract pollinators because this ensures the continuation of their offspring. The energy of fertility permeates all of nature during the summer season for plants and humans alike. Flowers reflect to us the medicine and importance of passion, pleasure, sensual delight, sexuality and fertile creative energy.

Summer is a time of abundance. In summer there's an abundance of life-giving energy, an abundance of food from the earth, and healing medicines in our gardens. Summer is a time when life is flowering and the beauty is spilling over to be shared and enjoyed by all. Our job is to enjoy it, receive it, create it, be it! Summer is a time to be in the flow of the abundance of nature, participating in the receiving, the embodying and the sharing of that generative flow.

Summer is a time of beauty. Is there anything in this Creation more breathtaking than flowers? Flowers are the peak expression of a plant's beauty. Gazing upon a flowering landscape is endlessly awe inspiring and heart opening. The fact that nature created these divine expressions is nothing short of miraculous. When we, you and I, are in our most creative, beautiful and authentic self-expression, we are in our flowering nature the highest expression of all that we are the flower in us. That is our beauty. That is Beauty. That is Being Beautiful. Flowers reflect this flowering aspect of our own nature, teaching us the importance of embodying our own beauty.

I was given a dream a few years back in which a wise inner teacher simply said to me plainly and clearly in the dream, “You know, daughter, striving is essential to keeping beauty alive.” At the time of the dream and since its reception, the message of the dream comes when I feel my creativity wane or feel inner or outer voices holding me back from sharing my authentic expression. I've come to believe that this dream was a gift from the flowering forces of life to my flowering nature. Upon reflecting on its message, I've come to see that wow, the plants have to strive to flower. It's hard work to make all that gorgeous! That striving and hard work are essential for keeping beauty alive for them, for us, and for all life.

So what is Beauty?

Let's reclaim this notion of beauty from the homogenized and patriarchal confines of the dominant culture that we're all trying to hack our way out of, and let's try to seek out its original nature.

What is beauty?

Let's try this: What would the flowers say if we were to pose this question to them? As I imagine this, they might respond with something like this:

·      Beauty is that which creates life.

·      Beauty is that which feeds life.

·      Beauty is that which inspires life to grow around itself.

·      Beauty is that which opens the heart.

·      Beauty is that which dances and inspires dances.

·      Beauty generates, gives, inspires, feeds, and thinks beyond oneself.

·      Beauty has zero to do with specific metrics of physical attractiveness and everything to do with individuality, uniqueness, authenticity, and creativity.

·      Beauty blossoms from the inside.

·      The outer is the expression of the inner, and in that expression beauty feeds and inspires more beauty to grow around itself.

The flowers themselves truly are my greatest teacher around what it means to live beautifully, boldly, authentically, creatively, unabashedly, unapologetically. No permission needed. They simply are who they are and who they are is stunning. Think about how they shift us with simply a gaze upon their presence. Well, that same magic, that beauty also exists within you and within me. When you are in your most authentic expression and unique shine, you too inspire life to grow around you. You too inspire the heart of life to open. You too become a wellspring of generosity, creativity and inspiration. You too help life continue to grow.

And you too, keep the Good Dream alive on this beautiful blessed earth simply by being who and how you are, who and how you were made. Who and how you were made is different from who and how anyone else was made. Your presence, your birth here in this world is and was a miracle. Your continued life, every day and every breath is a miracle. The way that you can give back for this miracle is to live fully, free from the over-culture’s grasp, free from the grasp of anyone or anything outside of your own heart, the voice of Mother Earth.

So we need you, dear ones. You don't need me to say again that this is all hands on deck time. All Souls on deck. We need all the soul that we can touch, that we can embody, that we can dream-weave on this planet at this time, if this is going to remain a planet of soul and of beauty.

So blessed be your beauty, dear ones.

Blessed be your unique contribution to the web of life.

Blessed be the expression of your authentic creativity.

Blessed be your song.

Blessed be your dance.

Blessed be the medicine that you are.

Here are a few questions that I will leave you with. Take time to reflect on these. Perhaps they will be portals that open up your connection with the beauty that has dreamt you.

·      What is the inner beauty I am?

·      How does my beauty want to shine into this world?

·      How am I expressing my beauty, my creativity and my authenticity?

·      What is my relationship with loving myself and loving all of life?

·      How could I be more beautiful, authentic, and creative?

·      How might these expressions serve all of creation?