[Please imagine a wonderful video to accompany this blog post – I got covered in paint so decided against filming anything]
All these years (decades) I’ve been meditating around the Pagan (aka seeing divinity in nature) calendar and this year, I’ve spent part of the afternoon actually looking at fields because I live in the country now.
Before this, Lughnasadh, the idea of harvest, was very abstract.
But today, a new neighbour introduced herself while I was painting one of the rooms and gave me some fresh baked bread rolls and homemade blackcurrant jam! She’d harvested the blackcurrants!
I’ll be planting trees in the field this autumn and next year, hope to be making jams and smoothies and other things from the literal harvest (assuming they grow).
It feels quite appropriate that I’m preparing my new house to move into later this month during this time of year. The move was so long in the making, it feels like a sort of harvest itself.
I’m also reaping the rewards of having created a portable practice last year in anticipation of the move so I could continue to see clients and supervisees, alongside my freelance journalism, before during and after my moves.
Now that I’m more settled, I’m taking on more face to face clients in Westport and making the most of the beautiful surroundings (while keeping the weather in mind) for outdoor therapy, self care coaching and supervision.
You can find some additional suggestions for honouring Lughnasadh in my book, 365 Ways to Feel Better: Self-care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing
And you might want to meditate on or journal around the following questions:
What are you harvesting in your life?
What are you reaping the benefits of?
What are you thinking about planting (seeds of ideas?) for the coming year?
You might want to ask yourself the above questions about your personal life as well – which relationships have you nourished?
It’s a wonderful time of year to think about how we spend our energy and to make tweaks as necessary.
While I’ve always loved the word Lughnasadh (and enjoyed Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasadh although not as much as Translations), it’s taken on new meaning for me this year.
Soon after I moved to Ireland, I was fortunate enough to attend a Bealtaine / Beltane festival, at Uisneach. I learned about the god, Lugh (who had apparently died in one of the fields where the festival took place) and how he was a multiskilled god.
His admittance into Tara (if I remember rightly) was delayed because they already had a warrior, a poet, a blacksmith etc etc. Eventually he asked if anyone could do all of it and he was let in because no one else could.
Because I have so many elements to my work, this story of Lugh really appealed and I look forward to learning more about the associated stories and myths.
I set up a free facebook group for Multiskilled Therapists and Coaches so if this is you, you’re very welcome (and I’ll become more active in it when I make this final move and get settled to make it more of the resource I’d envisedged – these moves are taking more time and energy than I’d imagined).
But for now, you might want to reflect on the different strings to your own bow.
Which elements of your work energise you?
Which do you wish you could drop?
What about the other ways in which you expend your energy? Which are no longer worth the time and effort?
What would you like to have MORE time and energy for?
Doing more of the things – where possible – that feel good means we become more adept as using joy as a GPS.
If you’d like some support in exploring these ideas and more, you can find out about ways in which we might work together and get in touch to book a free no obligation telephone consultation.
And, of course, the focus of all my work is self care and encouraging you to figure out what helps you (becoming your own self care coach). You might be surprised by what comes up for you simply by giving yourself some time and space to reflect on these questions this Lughnasadh.
With it being so close to last night’s new moon, any intentions we set at this time are extra powerful.
Big love,
