We had our Solstice gathering.

[Texaswitchy]

Just for those 50 and up.

It was fun but also sad as three of our group have past away since 2020.

So their children brought their ashes and a picture to the gathering.

Each had their own chair and we were together one last time .

Their ashes will be released here on the farm as our sisters requested.

Last night was different but it was also nice to get together.

Everyone was vaccinated and tested.

Everyone wore masks.

We were outside.

Nice bonfire.

Happy solstice everyone.

Happy New Year.

[littlemissmartypants]

1. ❤

[Dale in Laurel MD]

2. Happy Solstice! nt

[Donkees]

3. 🌌

The Ashes
BY KARIN GOTTSHALL

You were carried here by hands
and now the wind has you, gritty
as incense, dark sparkles borne

in the shape of blowing,
this great atmospheric bloom,
spinning under the bridge and expanding—

shape of wind and its pattern
of shattering. Having sloughed off
the urn's temporary shape,

there is another of you now—
tell me which to speak to:
the one you were, or are, the one who waited

in the ashes for this scattering, or the one
now added to the already haunted woods,
the woods that sigh and shift their leaves—

where your mystery billows, then breathes.

[Texaswitchy]

4. Bless you.

The families will release the ashes on the Friday.

And plant trees.

The elders were 96, 99, and 102.

The virus got one them.

The other two of natural causes.

They will be missed.

[electric_blue68]

6. Those are long lives!

[Donkees]

7. ''may the protection of the ancestors be yours.''

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

Beannacht / Blessing
- John O'Donohue

[electric_blue68]

5. Happy Solstice.