Fire Women – MCK

Today is Beltane, one of the 4 Fire Festivals of the ancient Celtic calendar. It celebrates the turn into Summer with all its generativity, generosity, and abundance. Given the chaos and the threats that surround us, I am having a hard time feeling my way into that joyful celebration.

But, when I stepped out of the house this morning, I was — as always — surrounded by birdsong and the green growing world, reminding me that the greater-than-human world — & many humans too — are doing their best to kindle the promise of Beltane. I remember that the fires of Beltane are lit for protection and purification. In this chaotic time of swirling negative energies, we have a great need of such protection — and we are the ones who must offer it to all. We each must kindle our own inner fires of positive creativity, dedicated to enlivenment and the good of all. We are the fire-carriers.

May 1 has also, more recently, become a time to protest injustice. Today, as protests abound throughout my nation, I can sense the connection between the old & new. Both are turnings towards Life.

Let’s offer our support to each other and remind ourselves to:

"Keep our anger from becoming meanness.

Keep our sorrow from collapsing into self-pity.

Keep our hearts soft enough to keep breaking.

Keep our outrage turned towards justice, not cruelty.

Remind us that all of this, every bit of it, is for love."

Keep us fiercely kind.

						~ Laura Jean Truman