This entry was originally published on Medium.com on April 3, 2023. I've continued to celebrate the seasonal changes and have made a new crown for each.
It’s the first week of April and I’ve completed all the little ritualistic acts that I perform at the change of the seasons, little things to remind myself that I am a part of nature, not apart from her.
I wrote about it last year, at the autumnal equinox:
I’ve redecorated…
“…my altar and my lair (as I’ve christened my basement bedroom/yoga/meditation room) to mark the changing of the seasons. I’ve bought inexpensive seasonal decor (think acorns and fall leaves or sunflowers and poppy garlands) and spent a few hours just cleaning and rededicating these sacred spaces in my life. I’ve come to anticipate that quarterly time with joy. Having done this for a year, I can confidently say it’s contributed a lot to my spiritual practice, though it’s difficult to articulate exactly why it’s so powerful. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that it puts me more in touch with the natural world and her changes. There are subtle energies constantly at work that we simply don’t understand (it wasn’t that long ago that electricity hadn’t even been imagined, after all). Maybe honoring those energies helps me align with them and live in that elusive flow I’m always seeking.”
For decades, I lived in a state of deep unwellness on virtually every level. There were years when I’d dodge mirrors, to say nothing of cameras, because I couldn’t bear to look at myself. It was all just so sad.
A huge part of my recovery has involved falling very deeply in love with myself, and that took a lot of work.
What I came to realize is that if I truly wanted to regard myself as part of nature, I had to recognize the beauty, even the god(dess) in myself. And that involved embracing the ugliness and the demons. Unflinchingly. That’s why I keep a mirror on my altar. It’s not about vanity, it’s about reality.
I’m the only one I’m going to spend every second of the rest of my life with, so I damn well better love myself thoroughly, and beyond reason. It’s my responsibility to be the expert in everything that makes me happy.
At long last, I’m so enamored with myself — I plan to spend the rest of my life cracking jokes with myself, appreciating myself, and just generally thinking I’m one helluva swell broad.
In keeping with that line of thought, last winter I started a new tradition that includes my physical person in my celebration of the seasonal change. It’s very simple, very silly, very inexpensive, and very joyous.
Are you ready to hear about it?
Brace yourself, it’s corny.
I make myself a seasonal halo/crown, dress up in pretty clothes that make me feel magical, then frolic around in my backyard. I film myself being the silly fairy queen of my dreams…Because why shouldn’t I?
The truth of the matter is that life is ours to create and celebrate. You’re the main character of your life movie, just as I’m the main character in mine.
Please feel free to follow my lead in this silly little seasonal joy ceremony!
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