June and Soft Beginnings

 

It's a quieter step into June this morning.

The past thirteen days since the Victoria Day Weekend have been something of an all out sprint, pressing from one big thing to another, with days of meetings, preparation, packing and unpacking slipped into the betweens. 

Time to stop all that good and honorable nonsense.

I flip over the calendar and welcome the new month with a soft sigh. 

Today, this first day of June, if I get to the end of it feeling more rested and clear headed -- that will have been a satisfying and successful day.  And even now, over the next few days in this first week of June, I'm keeping the volume on low in keeping with the obedient, rather relaxed expectations I have of myself for right now.

June.

And then there's the thing about June holding so much remembering.  Just in this first week, these first few days of it, there is the marking of five beloveds who left us.  Years have past but their absence remains.  And it gathers like a misty aching that I need to leave room for.

Then, my birthday.  This one is 69, and I'm amazed.  How did I get here so fast?  And how is it that life continues so abundantly upward, despite the rather persistent covert messaging of it all being downhill from here?  Not for me.  Not at all.  Steady on we go.

So much gratitude.  What a gift it is to step softly into this particular June.  Sunlight early, because it's June.  Lilacs, because it's June. Birds at the birdbath, because it's June.  Space to be, because...it's June.

Happy new month day to you.

If you share a June birthday, happy anticipation of cake to you.

If you need to pause and rest a bit, hope it can happen for you soon.

If you are grieving and remembering, I'm with you.