Steph Abbott Says

Welcoming the coming of summer, my first post this month celebrates renewal and life. This may be the best moment to celebrate the past joys of winter and the incoming beauty of summer. Today, I’m taking the time to honor the past, present, and future (with a bit longer of a blog post than usual).

Much maligned over the centuries for missunderstood yet simple ritual, I welcome traditional rights of celebration. The Gaelic festival Lá Bealtaine and the northern European Walpurgis Night are filled with dance and magic. These festivals represent spring in it’s most basic form: Chasing the bite of winter, warming of the soil, sowing seeds, and germinating life.

Why not dance with flowers in my hair, doodle for the day, and revel in the change of elements?!

Marking midway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, I revel in art with light and life. Lighting the end of winter with a bonfire simply invigorates the soul. In fact, both rituals bring about pleasant memories from my childhood.

Planting flowers and vegetables was a common task as a child. I loved dancing around the May Pole with flowers in my hair. Delivering flowers in the early morning to the unattached ladies on the block just felt right. As a teen with spring fever, partying around a bon fire in the hills offered great release from the arduous work of school.

Living for others now, these joys and rituals have fallen by the wayside. Now it takes effort to consider today’s significance. I get distracted by all the historical happenings of the day.

Important as any other day, May 1 offers plenty of reasons for cause and celebration. From the establishment of the Illuminati and the capture of New Orleans to the greeting of Guam and significance of International Worker’s Day. Truely, I could join plenty of bandwagons.

Today, however, I am celebrating life and renewal.

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May 1, 2011. Today is the first of 31 posts in my efforts to participate in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). The theme for May is MAYBE. I created the image I’m calling Sister Sally using Adobe Illustrator.