When Summer Solstice arrives in June, I must do a ritual to make peace with summer. I do not at all like to be a bitch, but I am going to bitch about summer because I feel like I have to. I ask for help from the nature spirits with this.

In fall, winter and spring where I live on the mountain, I walk trails all through the back woods several times a week. I sit on my porch. I see the ridges of mountains on the horizon in every direction that I look.

In summer, the trails are chest deep in growth, impossible to walk. On my porch I am eaten by bugs, and their little corpses fall into whatever I try to eat or drink outside. I can’t see mountains on the horizon, the leaves on the trees block the view. I feel closed in. Carpenter bees are eating holes in the wood on my porch. Grass needs to be mowed about every other day. Nature is gorgeous, lush and exquisite, but it all feels like it is coming at me!

The nature of psyche has been the same way. Growth in every area is apparent and rich and full but I feel inundated. I know it is a blessing, but it feels like too much. In just the last 24 hours, I have connected with the stories of old, good friends, and their stories fill me with the staggering fecundity of life.

For a person who lives with a sense that life is overwhelming, summer is a particularly challenging season. I need help with this! Humbly, I ask for blessing.