Today is the first day of summer, also known as Summer Solstice.  A new season begins, an old one draws to a graceful conclusion.  The cycle of life and of nature continues to turn.  Whether we pay attention to it or not – the wheel turns. 

Spring, with its planting of seeds, has been a time of newness.  This could be in the physical planting of seeds, such as a vegetable or flower garden.  Or it could be the planting of life intentions, goals and desires. 

My father plants a vegetable garden every year.  Spring is when he tills the soil from its winter rest, breaking it up, getting it ready to receive the seeds and seedling plants of vegetables.  He decides which vegetables he wants to grow and where in the garden is the best place to plant each item based on his years of experience.  He gathers the seeds waiting for the final frost to put them into the ground, right around spring equinox.  Then watching the weather, he carefully and lovingly digs the holes for the seeds or puts the seedlings into the ground.

Then comes the hard part – waiting to see if the seeds sprout, if the frost is truly gone, and wondering his plants will grow healthy or if he will have to replant some of them.  This is the turning of the wheel from spring into summer.  We plant our seeds and wait for them to sprout and mature into the fullness of our desires.  Summer is the time of growth, of sunshine and activity.  Our gardens are planted, now we need to weed them, thin those items we have too much of, and keep them watered.

Just last week, my Dad sat back with my Mom admiring the lushness of his garden.  The plants were growing healthy and big.  Blossoms were beginning to form and on some plants, small fruits were beginning to take shape.  The root vegetables, such as beets were getting big enough they needed to be thinned.  All his hard work earlier in the spring was paying off.  It looked like they would have a bountiful garden this year.

That evening, a hail storm hit where he lives.  This is an extremely unusual occurrence.  He and my Mom watched in horror as the dime-sized hailstones plummeted his lovingly tended garden.  Leaves so full of promise were shredded and blossoms were ripped off from plants.  Over an inch of hail fell that night.  There was nothing he could do to stop the onslaught of destruction.

He had two choices.  He could throw his hands up in the air, curse Spirit for ruining his lovely garden, and mope for the rest of the summer wishing for his lost garden.  Or he could go through the garden, seeing what was ruined beyond saving and what with additional loving care can once again become healthy or replanting those beyond saving.

How often do we plant our gardens in the spring with such great hopes of the abundant harvest in the fall, only to have something unexpected happen that is seemingly devastating?  How do we react?  We too have a choice.  We can throw our hands up in the air, rant and rail about the unfairness of life, and stomp away.  In doing this, we forget to examine our garden to see the true damage that was done.  Instead, we quit.  We walk away saying, “Well, that wasn’t for me anyway.”  And in the fall when we desire to reap the harvest of our desires, the garden has turned to weeds and there is nothing to harvest.  We then whine and complain about how beautiful our garden was, if not for that freak hailstorm, we could have had an abundant harvest to preserve and carry us through the winter.  But that hailstorm ruined it all and now we have nothing.

But did it ruin it?  Or did we walk away.  We were given a challenge by Spirit to help us grow.  But we only saw the shredded leaves but not the healthy root-stalk beneath the earth.

Our second choice is to see the unusual occurrence as just that and look at it as a challenge.  We can go out the next day, examine the damage, salvage what we can, and begin anew.  We can replant those desires that aren’t quite what we thought they were.  We can nurture those goals where small buds are beginning to form.  We can even begin to understand there were blessings in that freak storm.  We planted way too many pepper plants and the storm is giving us the chance to rethink and re-plan what are our true desires.  We can evaluate the value and greater good to come from our garden, and put forth the needed effort to bring it into maturity.

My father is a good example of the second choice.  My father knows the value of having an abundant harvest of vegetables from his garden.  He and my mother spends the late summer months gathering the bounty of their little garden plot, canning tomatoes, beets, and beans.  The food produced not only feeds him and my mother, but also his children.  My brother and sister, me, my nieces and nephews all benefit from their labor of planting, tending, and harvesting their garden. 

And so, the next day, his choice was to go out and take care of his garden.  And as he looked, he realized the damage wasn’t as bad as it first looked during the storm.  Many plants survived unscathed.

So too, if we take the second choice when the freak hailstorm of life hits our burgeoning garden of hopes, dreams, and desires, we may find the damage isn’t quite what we thought it was.  We can take a deep breath, assess what needs to be done, and take the next step.  It may be that our garden will be even be more abundant because of the additional care we have lavished upon it.

May your summer be fun-filled and your garden mature into a bountiful harvest.

Tora Moon

Priestess and LightBearer

Founder of The Goddess Living

www.TheGoddessLiving.com

Bio:  Tora Moon is a Priestess of The Goddess and is dedicated to restoring the Feminine Divine, the Goddess, to the world.  She is the founder and owner of The Goddess Living; School, Store and More to celebrate the Goddess Living in all things (www.TheGoddessLiving.com ).  She teaches classes on The Goddess and leads meditation circles.  She is a talented alchemist and creates amazing “Attunement Products™” to attune and align your energy to various Goddesses and Qualities.

© Tora Moon, 2010;  All rights reserved.  This message may be shared with others in its entirety, provided the following is included:  “This message was channeled by Tora Moon and posted on her blogsite: www.TheGoddessLiving.info.  Tora Moon is the founder of The Goddess Living, a School, Store, and More… you can find out more at www.TheGoddessLiving.com ”