"The moon, like a flower in heaven's high bower, With silent delight sits and smiles on the night." — William Blake
Image from Pinterest
This is a great time to make a wish because there will be two full moons in May!
The first one is the Flower Moon (in Scorpio) and will reach its peak tomorrow, May 1, while the second full moon, the Blue Moon (which is also a micromoon), peaks at the end of the month on May 31.
This full moon symbolizes the peak of spring, blooming, and full expression, urging us to step into our potential and allow our personal growth to “bloom”.
It’s also May Day, to honor the arrival of spring (Beltane).
Beltane traditions include dancing around maypoles, creating flower crowns, and placing flowers on neighbors’ doorsteps.
I’ll try to remember to place my crystals on the deck to absorb all of the positive and cleansing energies of the full moon, along with a carafe of water to charge with lunar energy for intention-setting and healing.
It’s the best way to kick off my birthday month and the best day of all to celebrate, Mother’s Day!
In an alternate universe, I would wish everyone a Happy Earth Day, but today, there’s not a whole lot to celebrate.
Mother Earth is at risk and we’re not doing enough to save her. Or us.
The orange POS and his administration have been focused on reversing environmental regulations to boost domestic energy production, targeting over 460 environmental, climate, and public health safeguards for removal or weakening. Key initiatives include withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, rescinding the EPA’s Endangerment Finding to deregulate greenhouse gases and promoting “drill, baby, drill” fossil fuel policies.
California is battling federal efforts to expand oil drilling off its coast, with lawsuits filed to block the restart of Sable Offshore Corp pipelines near Santa Barbara, which were shut down after a major 2015 spill. While new drilling in state waters is banned, federal plans propose lease sales for new offshore drilling between 2027-2030, raising risks of oil spills and environmental damage.
This appalling administration is actively expanding oil drilling in Alaska, reversing Biden-era restrictions on millions of acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and initiating lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Projects like ConocoPhillips’ Willow and new auctions highlight a push for increased development amid lawsuits from environmental groups and support from state leaders.
Like I said, not much to celebrate. It’d be more accurate to say that we are in mourning…
I attended the very first Earth Day celebration in 1970 at Balboa Park in San Diego with a crowd of about 70,000 people. The weather was beautiful, about 68 degrees, and I must have skipped school that Wednesday.
I can’t remember who I went with or how I got there but I do recall walking from booth to booth looking for free stuff and having an unpleasant encounter with a San Diego cop, probably about being truant.
There is a vague recollection that I swore at him and he got all puffed up and intimidating, threatened to call my dad until I told him to go ahead, my dad was an attorney…and then he walked away. Miss you, Daddy, and thank you!
Video from San Diego’s first Earth Day April 22, 1970
Gaia, known as the mother goddess, was the personification of Earth. She’s described as a caring and nurturing mother figure to all of her children, plants, and other living creatures on this planet.
We’re all children of Gaia, Earth Mother, no matter where we live, and if we take care of Mother Earth, she’ll take care of us.
With this reckless administration of chaos and darkness, they seem determined to destroy as much of our environmental and animal protections as they’re doing to democracy and the constitution, so it’s not such a happy day, after all.
A while back a neighbor was tossing out a few orchid plants that she thought were dead or dying. I rescued them, gave them love, and patiently waited.
I’ve been rewarded with not one, but two of them throwing spikes and blooming at the same time!
Photo by Enchanted Seashells
Best of all, they’re one of the few flowers that don’t trigger my allergies!
Photo by Enchanted Seashells
Slightly different shades of fuchsia bring joy.
Photo by Enchanted Seashells
I don’t know why anyone would discard an orchid; they’re not that difficult to maintain and there’s immense satisfaction when they rebloom.
I found an obscure poem about orchids by José Santos Chocano, written in the 1920s:
The Orchids
Freaks of bright crystal, airy beauties fair, Whose enigmatic forms amaze the eye— Crowns fit to deck Apollo’s brows on high, Adornments meet for halls of splendor rare! They spring from knots in tree-trunks, rising there In sweet gradation; winding wondrously, They twist their serpent stems, and far and nigh Hang overhead like wingless birds in air.
Lonely, like pensive heads, all fetterless. Lofty and free they bloom; by no dull chain Their flowers to any tyrant root are bound; Because they too, at war with pettiness, Desire to live, like souls that know no stain, Without one touch of contact with the ground.
“To be wild is not to be crazy or psychotic. True wildness is a love of nature, a delight in silence, a voice free to say spontaneous things, and an exuberant curiosity in the face of the unknown.” —Robert Bly
I’m reading bell hooks (yes, all lower case) All About Love.
To truly love we must learn to mix various ingredients—care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication.
“The wounded child inside many males is a boy who, when he first spoke his truths, was silenced by paternal sadism, by a patriarchal world that did not want him to claim his true feelings. The wounded child inside many females is a girl who was taught from early childhood that she must become something other than herself, deny her true feelings, in order to attract and please others. When men and women punish each other for truth telling, we reinforce the notion that lies are better. To be loving we willingly hear the other’s truth, and most important, we affirm the value of truth telling. Lies may make people feel better, but they do not help them to know love.”
According to Google, Shams Tabrizi (c. 1185–1248) was a wandering Persian Sufi mystic born in Tabriz, Iran. While he traveled extensively, he is best known for being the spiritual guide of Rumi in the 1240s. He later lived and died in Khoy, Iran, where his shrine is located.
(I figured this was more positive than commenting on current events.)
I’ve been trying to capture this photo for a few days and my patience and persistence finally paid off. I think she’s searching for a suitable nesting site, or maybe she really thinks this hummingbird wind chime is a cousin, I dunno…
I had to snap the pic through the screen door so I wouldn’t scare her off, but I’m completely happy with the result. It’s these little joyful moments that make life worth living, don’t you agree?
I discovered a poem written by D.H. Lawrence about hummingbirds:
Humming-bird I can imagine, in some otherworld Primeval-dumb, far back In that most awful stillness, that only gasped and hummed, Humming-birds raced down the avenues.
Before anything had a soul, While life was a heave of Matter, half inanimate, This little bit chipped off in brilliance And went whizzing through the slow, vast, succulent stems.
I believe there were no flowers, then In the world where the humming-bird flashed ahead of creation. I believe he pierced the slow vegetable veins with his long beak.
Probably he was big As mosses, and little lizards, they say, were once big. Probably he was a jabbing, terrifying monster.
We look at him through the wrong end of the long telescope of Time, Luckily for us.
Enchanted Seashells | Princess Rosebud 