Summer Solstice Reflections from the Crones Hearth
Tomorrow is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. The sun reaches its peak before beginning its slow return toward the darkness, and each year I find myself feeling more connected to this turning of the wheel. As a woman entering my crone years, I see my own life reflected in the seasons. There was a time when my days revolved around raising children. The house was busy, noisy, and full of constant movement. For years, my identity was woven into motherhood. Then, almost without warning, the children grew up. They built lives of their own. The bedrooms emptied. The routines changed. The silence arrived. Empty nesting is a strange kind of grief. Not a devastating grief, but a quiet one. A bittersweet acknowledgment that a season has ended. Yet the wheel turns. Now, grandchildren fill my life with a different kind of magic. I no longer carry the weight of raising them. Instead, I get to witness them. I get to delight in them. I get to pass along stories, traditions...
