{"id":711,"date":"2016-06-17T03:42:23","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T03:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/?p=711"},"modified":"2016-06-17T14:21:12","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T14:21:12","slug":"a-mailbox-for-the-sprites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/a-mailbox-for-the-sprites\/","title":{"rendered":"A Mailbox for the Sprites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our family celebrates\u00a0winter solstice, but summer solstice tends to slip by unnoticed. \u00a0This year, now that I have two little ones, I\u2019m determined to change that. \u00a0I want us to stop and notice this longest day of the year together. \u00a0So I\u2019ve learned more about summer solstice, and this year, we\u2019ve got a new ritual.<\/p>\n

Midsummer, as the ancient Britons called the summer solstice, was a sacred time. \u00a0Agrarian families set up a cross hung with wildflowers, which they sang and danced around. \u00a0That night, they held a bonfire. \u00a0But the greatest midsummer magic was for children. \u00a0That evening, little ones sought out the special spots in the garden where fairies were believed to dwell, and they left offerings of cakes or cookies. \u00a0In the morning, in place of the cookies, they\u2019d find some of the cookies nibbled away, and a tiny treasure left in their place.<\/span><\/p>\n

I love this ritual, and I wanted to bring it to my family. \u00a0But first, I felt that we needed to bring fairies to life for the children, and for ourselves as well. \u00a0How many of us have really taken time to consider, along-side our children, where in our garden the fairies dwell?<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that I\u2019m a mother, I appreciate that to nurture our children\u2019s receptivity to wonder takes conscious thought and effort. \u00a0How can we shield them from what, in our culture, would lead them into adult ways of thinking before they are yet five years old? \u00a0What kinds of stories, images, and experiences can we feed them to help them feel and find spirit at work in the world? \u00a0\u00a0Fairies are not a cute idea, not a marketing gimmick. \u00a0They are one way of saying what the ancients knew for sure– that nature is the dwelling place of spirit.<\/p>\n

If there is one lesson I hope to impart to my children, it is this. \u00a0God lives here. \u00a0Not anywhere else. In you. \u00a0In me. \u00a0In the woods. \u00a0On the street. \u00a0In the mystery of things are as they are, and as they are coming to be. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The funny thing is I don\u2019t teach them this. \u00a0If anything, they teach me. \u00a0When it comes to wonderment, I am the student, they are my tiny buddhas. \u00a0My trickster teachers. \u00a0Wrestling. \u00a0Laughing. \u00a0Finding angels under stones.<\/span><\/p>\n

So we set up a fairy mailbox. \u00a0(Thanks to my longtime friend Thekla Astrup for the idea!) \u00a0\u00a0I told my 3 \u00bd year old son, Ember, that the mailbox was a way for him to communicate with the sprites who live in our garden. \u00a0The mailbox is a small decorative box I placed just outside the door. \u00a0It\u2019s been a week or so. \u00a0Every day, Ember writes to them faithfully. \u00a0He can\u2019t write words yet, of course, but he draws with a pen and narrates as he goes. \u00a0\u201cDear sprites, \u00a0I hear you live in the birch trees. \u00a0What kinds of games do you like to play up there? \u00a0Can one of you carry a leaf canoe? \u00a0Or does it take two of you to do it? \u00a0Do you like to eat mud cookies?\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Each morning, he wakes eager to see whether the sprites have written, and if they have, we read their note aloud. \u00a0Usually they leave a letter. \u00a0The other day, they left a song. \u00a0I’d love to include it in this post, but if I sing it now, it will wake the children… \u00a0So I’ll wait and post it separately, tomorrow.<\/span><\/p>\n

And what\u00a0about you? \u00a0Does anything in the Midsummer rituals of yore speak to you? \u00a0What are you doing to mark Midsummer this year? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wishing you joy and wonder,<\/span>
\nNV<\/span><\/p>\n

\"20160609_164340\"

Making mud cookies to leave for the sprites<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"20160609_171820\"

Nine mud cookies, and one pot of rose milk tea, waiting by the sprites’ mailbox.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"20160610_110646\"

No greater heaven…<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"20160614_150642\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our family celebrates\u00a0winter solstice, but summer solstice tends to slip by unnoticed. \u00a0This year, now that I have two little ones, I\u2019m determined to change that. \u00a0I want us to stop and notice this longest day of the year together. \u00a0So I\u2019ve learned more about summer solstice, and this year, we\u2019ve got a new ritual. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[3,7,4,1,5,11],"tags":[21,14,18,20,19,13,22],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}