Hello, hello, my loves!
Tomorrow is Litha! The Summer Solstice! The longest day of the year! There is so much light right now; I have nearly every window open, the breeze is blowing (to the point where a couple houseplants decided to swan dive off the window sills…) So much warmth, so much growth, so much more momentum than any other point on the Wheel. It’s easy for me to simply be and feel the peak of energy and like everything is ok and will always be ok. I love this summery, child-like optimism.
Ah, but then I remember that tomorrow, the light starts receding. Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, the days will begin to shorten again. The Wheel does not pause at its highest point to let us admire the view. It keeps moving. The very same day that holds the most light is the day the descent quietly begins.
I’ve been thinking about how this is in relation to women’s wellness, as a whole. We talk often about women’s progress in terms of peaks, those moments when it feels like we have arrived, when rights have been won, when visibility has been achieved, when the work feels, for a breath, complete. Celebrating those peak-like moments keeps us moving forward and reminds us that we’ve won battles, after all.
This year, Litha reminds me that the peak is never the finish line, though, it’s the turning point and the invitation to dive down deeper and get back into the nitty gritty work that the harvest and then dark seasons demand of us.
We are living through a moment right now where progress that once felt solid is being quietly (and not so quietly,) rolled back on us. Bodily autonomy. Reproductive rights. Protections that took generations to win are being unwound in real time. It can feel disorienting, almost like the light is being taken from us without warning, like a premature fallow season is upon us. But the Wheel teaches us something important here: the turn is simply the next phase of a cycle that has always moved these ways, and we have always navigated them, and there are always people out there doing the good work and causing the good trouble.
So tomorrow, as you celebrate the longest day, I invite you to hold both truths at once. Celebrate the peak. Soak in the light and feel the breeze. Let yourself feel the fullness of this moment without guilt and remind yourself that the descent isn’t anything to fear, it’s just an invitation to look forward to the harvest.
Blessed Litha, my loves.
