Hello friend,

I'm here today to wish you a beautiful solstice time, whenever it is you celebrate that in this week or so of ultimate daylight and shortest night.

I'm about to present at a festival called Cascadian Midsummer that's held outside of Olympia, and as I was reading the booklet for the festival that was created by my friend's publishing house called Hyldr, I came across a goosebumps-inducing piece inside written by Ilana Hamilton, a storyteller who lives in Portland, Oregon. Ilana does a lot of work with mythic and traditional material, sometimes texts from Old Norse.

This piece, Summer Solstice, was written to be read aloud at a midsummer or solstice bonfire. It isn’t published anywhere else, but she gave me permission to share it with you here. And I want you to have it simply so that you can read it and hear it for pleasure, but also so that, if you feel inspired to, you could take this to your own Midsummer ritual or celebration and share it with others.

I have attached the text below.

May the radiance of the sun fortify our human hearts these days of its ultimate power. May it awaken the burning in us to repair and defend all that is beautiful and valuable and sacred in this world.

Sweet solstice to you and yours,

Love Danica

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