Welcoming the Sun

Being a psychic, I should know that clearing and meditation will bring me peace. But being a single mother of two young girls makes these things impossible sometimes. Yet I just have to share with you an experience I just had. While reviewing a book about Wicca for teens that my daughter was asking about, I came across a ritual that has literally changed our lives. It’s called Welcoming the Sun.

This ritual was simply to take the time and welcome the sun, call on the Goddess, and say thank you to Mother Earth for her blessings. I read it to my youngest, who is eight years old, and of course she just had to do it. We have many lakes nearby, and one just happens to be right next to my twelve-year-old’s middle school, so I promised to give it a try. Needless to say, it took us a week to make the extra fifteen minute extension in our schedule, but we finally did it.

We wake up thirty minutes early now, and get dressed for the day. The girls wear their school uniform and carry their backpacks to the car. We drive to the lake, the girls get out and take their shoes and socks off, I wear flip-flops, and we tromp down to the water’s edge. As the sun comes up over the reeds, we take a deep breath in, breathe in the sun and say, in turn, the things we are thankful for. Then we thank the Goddess and Mother Earth for their blessings. The first day we did this, I couldn’t believe how well the day went afterwards. I was peaceful and calm, my daughters were getting along better and even did their homework without a fuss. So we did it again and again.

Now we try new lakes in the morning, and the girls love it so much that they are up and dressed and waiting for me to wake up at 5:45 a.m. We stay longer and talk about the animals around the lake and things that they are worried about or happy about. It has really opened up our world, and brought us closer together.

We have been doing this for about three weeks. This past Friday, my youngest daughter (she is my event planner) decided that we were going to the “duck lake,” a lake downtown where many ducks nest, and we were going to say goodnight to the sun and hello to the moon. So now we not only say good morning to the sun, but we also say goodnight.

I am so blessed to have found this lovely way to connect to the Earth, the Goddess and my children. It seems so simple. But just those few moments of intention in an otherwise chaotic world are precious, and I can only hope to be looking down on my children and my children’s children as they welcome the sun for many generations to come.