The birthday was a turning point. I asked for what I needed and asked to be celebrated without wincing and apologizing for taking up to much space. The most important gifts were the love, support and beautiful words, sweet cards and poems I received as well as the presence of my friends around me, but the physical gifts are meaningful and I love to see them in here, one by one before they settle into their new places around the house.
Such a candle! It smells strongly of rich honey.
Oak leaf and sage bundle to represent the power of the plants.
A butterfly clip for sparkle and a wish for ADVENTURE!
Paper whites in a decorated bowl. I love how they grow up from rocks; their roots grabbing for stability.
A piece of bright artwork.
Lovely candles to welcome the 4 directions
Minerva, the Roman version of Athena, who is a symbol of women's power and transformation.
A poem from Mary Oliver
The Sunflowers -- by Mary Oliver
Come with me
into the field of sunflowers.
Their faces are burnished disks,
their dry spines
creak like ship masts,
their green leaves,
so heavy and many,
fill all day with the sticky
sugars of the sun.
Come with me
to visit the sunflowers,
they are shy
but want to be friends;
they have wonderful stories
of when they were young -
the important weather,
the wandering crows.
Don't be afraid
to ask them questions!
Their bright faces,
which follow the sun,
will listen, and all
those rows of seeds -
each one a new life!
hope for a deeper acquaintance;
each of them, though it stands
in a crowd of many,
like a separate universe,
is lonely, the long work
of turning their lives
into a celebration
is not easy. Come
and let us talk with those modest faces,
the simple garments of leaves,
the coarse roots in the earth
so uprightly burning.
their dry spines
creak like ship masts,
their green leaves,
so heavy and many,
fill all day with the sticky
sugars of the sun.
Come with me
to visit the sunflowers,
they are shy
but want to be friends;
they have wonderful stories
of when they were young -
the important weather,
the wandering crows.
Don't be afraid
to ask them questions!
Their bright faces,
which follow the sun,
will listen, and all
those rows of seeds -
each one a new life!
hope for a deeper acquaintance;
each of them, though it stands
in a crowd of many,
like a separate universe,
is lonely, the long work
of turning their lives
into a celebration
is not easy. Come
and let us talk with those modest faces,
the simple garments of leaves,
the coarse roots in the earth
so uprightly burning.
A joyful book about yellow
"And suddenly, the clouds parted and she realized what she had been following. She saw it there in the distance like a house with wings and a candle burning in every window: her Heart. So, of course, She had to enter. Once you follow your heart, and then find it, you must open the door........"
The book I had read about the power of women's circles with an incredible quote at its finish.
"You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round...The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball and so are the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours...Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves."
Black Elk,
Oglala Sioux Holy Man
And a crazy sky blue rock, Hemimorphite to assist in self-transformation and personal evolution while also bringing in joy and creativity.
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