Sunday in the Summer

I took these pictures in our garden this morning; I try to find ways to connect with the landscape around here, making every effort to feel peace and harmony with the natural world around me. Lately, I've been longing for the home I left in a way that almost makes me crazy. I long for smell of the boggy, salty air, the rolling dunes of Cape Cod beaches, the rocky shorelines. I long for the pine woods as well as the bustling streets of Boston, which always feels like a welcoming city to me in a way that no other city ever has. Recently, a friend of mine moved back home to Maine. I'm ecstatic for her, and just a little bit envious. I get tired of hearing people tell me that I live someplace where everyone else wants to live. If it's so great, why are so many people leaving? In the past few years, I've watched as friends and acquaintances have departed sunny Florida to live in Maine, Colorado, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Maryland, and New Jersey. Every few months, it seems, someone is telling me that they are moving someplace else. I don't mean to complain. I love our house, love my life with my little family, and have found things to love about South Florida (although the general population isn't one of them-I've found few friends here who have remained true, which has been a very sad experience). Being of the magickal persuasion, it's important for me to find a connection with the natural places around me, and I have occasionally found that link when we've traveled to local parks (there is one close by with a gorgeous live oak grove) and wooded areas. I can almost always tap into some sort of peace and feeling of belonging when I'm wandering around in the woodlands, although I find that peace is just a bit deeper when I'm walking (or running) through the old woodlands of my native New England. The energy there is so much different from what I feel here-maybe it just vibrates more harmoniously with my own energy. It's funny-when I was younger, I always talked about moving to California, or some such sunny and warm locale. Now that I'm older, I've found that most of what I've been searching for can be found in the very place I left. Somehow, that's tragically ironic.

Anyway, today I decided that it might be a good time to tap into the fairie energy in our gardens. Doing so might lessen the longing I feel for parts far away, as well as being a positive spiritual experience. I can teach our daughter a few things about the sidhe (what I've learned from books and past experience), and we can, side by side, continue to learn together.

Here's to joining in the great dance of life!