SeaHeart

This morning, I made my way out to our Forest Temple to give my daily offering of love to the Goddess (in this case, a freshly plucked daisy). The sunlight filtered through the pine trees, the birds were jubilant in song, and my heart was full. I'd walked along the edge of our garden, checked on the courageous plants, ever growing, fast growing, mind boggling in their ascent toward the heavens, and the fullness of new leaf. I've been gardening since I was a very little girl, but I will never lose the fascination and euphoria achieved when something you've tended from seed pokes its way through the earth, alive, well, growing. It's one of the most humbling, magical experiences you can have. Our garden is so big, and it sprawls, and it's filled with this sense of accomplishment--like, we did this, we did this together. Soon, we'll be eating fresh vegetables again, and that will be the most empowering thing that can happen. Having gone through a winter living very poorly, knowing that fresh greenery is so close reminds you of how precious the spring and summer are, how golden, how beautiful.

I entered the Forest Temple, and pressed my daisy to the offering column, and brushed my fingers along the base of the Goddess' statue. She was dew sprinkled and shone fiercely in the new light of the day. I said my familiar litany and prayer, and asked Her for my daily blessing: "may I have a good day," I grinned, and rose, feeling so light, so happy. I turned to go, and happened to glance down at my foot.

There was a tiny, perfect strawberry plant--bearing a tiny, perfect, sun-ripened-and-warm strawberry.

So, growing up, some of my happiest memories are laying in the meadow, plucking fresh, wild strawberries and sharing them with my Collie, Luke, laughing and happy in a golden spring-almost-summer afternoon. Strawberries to me are ease, plenty, joy, goodness, happy-golden-moments you hold to your heart forever. They are magic, pure and simple.

I plucked the strawberry, curtsied to the earth, the heavens, the sky, and ate it up. A tiny shock of red and juice and sweetness, that first strawberry of our summer. An offering from the Goddess, back to me.

So far, it has been a very good day~ <3