Declaration of Interdependence

Our Summer Solstice Need-Fire

This solstice illuminated for me (with quite a harsh light) that my home hearth is burning a "need" fire.  At month eleven on the island the swell of solar energy has been pushing us; out of doors, up late at night, into hyperactivity.  Just one week before the sun's zenith I found myself craving the break of the wave already - eager to be over the crescendo and exhaling with relief into the dark half of the year.  

I've been quiet on my Red Handed blog because over the winter and spring my energies have been going in two divergent (or at least I thought) directions.  I was working on writing a chapter about The Red Tent on Rose Avenue for an upcoming book on Yoga and Disordered Eating while midwifing the arrival of some new behavioral issues with my son that both challenged and inspired my mothering to a new degree. (It seems his hyperactivity isn't seasonal.)  The demands on my time felt to be at odds as I was leaving my cursor blinking mid-sentence on my writing in order to pick my son up early from school.  But as nature began to turn on loud and lush with its growing season  I realized that my different demands were informed by a common need: to go wild.  From the edges of vision (a way of looking that women seem to do best) my mind saw past the seemingly random and blinding explosions of chaos in my life to a bigger constellation that just might give me the meaning I need to make it through middle childhood as well as mid-life.  

Here's more about how we plan to go wild at The Warthog School.