Blessings of the Sun

Summer Solstice greetings!

Even now, the sunlight begins to wane. We enjoy the heat and warmth as we prepare for the coming harvest, the inevitable culling. For some, those with their hands and roots deep in the soil, it is a literal harvest. For others, it is a harvest of ideas.

For me, much attention and energy has been going into Conclave: A Journal of Character and before that, ABNABooks.com. These lush literary gardens are filling with blossoms and fruits, and I anxiously await the Fall to see what we will take away from the crop.

The Fall is also my time to write, the time when I am most inspired, most driven to get the words on the page. I think it is all that lush darkness wrapped around me.

But now, in the warm Chicago afternoons, I will run with my children in the sun and try to cherish the warm breezes on my face. Summer is the time to enjoy our passions, to honor life around us, to celebrate the relationships we have. Even for those who are not sun-worshippers, many will miss the glow and light when it’s Wintertime.

“I am the fire that clears away the old
I am the holy light that guides you to your soul
I am the Flame Of Love for which you yearn
I am the sun that will always return.”

~Lisa Thiel, “Litha”

Bright blessings to you and yours.
~Valya

Published by Valya

Valya Dudycz Lupescu is the author of Mother Christmas, The Silence of Trees, Forking Good, and Geek Parenting. She is also the editor of Embroidered Worlds: Fantastic Fiction from Ukraine and the Diaspora, published in 2023 by Atthis Arts. Valya earned her MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been published in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Ukrainian American Poets Respond, Kenyon Review, Strange Horizons, Mythic Delirium, and others. Valya has been making magic with words and food for 25 years, incorporating traditions from her Ukrainian heritage with practices that honor the Earth.

One thought on “Blessings of the Sun”

  1. I read your thoughts with great interest, Valya. Gives me much to think about.

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