A Prayer for Lammas

Tansy, Western Mugwort, and Lavender to hang in our home.

Lammas draws near.

It can be hard for me to remember to partake in the bounty of the garden. 

I spend time in the garden, weeding and tending and weed-whacking pathways. But I often forget to actually bring herbs home. 

Yesterday, I went to the garden to weed and tend and weed whack pathways. After a bit of that, I felt a strong urge to harvest herbs. John is always bringing deliciousness home from his farm. I wanted to do the same. 

I picked peppermint and lemon verbena for him, then I thought "We recently moved into a new home. How about some rue to hang above the door?" 

I kept going until I had two baskets filled with herbs and flowers to string up in our kitchen, mostly for beauty. 

While I was harvesting, it occurred to me that we are in Lammas season now (Lammas is next Thursday). This is the season in which we honor the abundance of the earth and express gratitude for the fall harvest (traditionally, the grain harvest).  Picking baskets of herbs with which to bless our home felt just right. 

I would like to leave you with a prayer for Lammas season:

A Prayer for Lammas

As the sun's eternal flame calls fruits to ripen
and seeds of grain to dry on the stalks,
as leaves collect that abundant brightness
and roots reach further depths,
we gather in our hearts a profound well of gratitude --
a gratitude so deep, so cool, so limitless
that it nourishes all the fields and forest around us
as the fields and forest nourish us.

Our gratitude is our sacred offering
in the face of the continued provenance of the earth.
In the year that has passed, we have eaten.
We have partaken on the infinite flavors and textures and pleasures that the earth has provided.
In the year to come, we will eat.
We will partake of the infinite flavors and textures and pleasures that the earth will provide.

As we partake of these pleasures, we honor the many lives and labors that have been given so that we may eat, that we may thrive.
We honor this with humility, knowing that this gift allows us to live.

In our gratitude, we commit our hearts to sharing our gifts so that others, too, may live and may thrive.
In our gratitude, we accept these gifts full, and without shame.

It is with out gratitude that we bless the earth.

A few rose hips were ripe enough to pick this week :) They are so beautiful and fruity-looking.