Beyond be- Litha (a passing thought and a crow-barred pun)

Litha- or summer solstice - used to be big news. "New Age Travellers" and "hippies" (media-style reductive titles of the laziest kind) would be harried and hounded by media and police alike as they attempted to celebrate in amongst the stones of Stonehenge.

In recent years, solstice has passed by with barely a mention. This year the BBC (ta for the picture, Auntie Beeb) has a few sunrise shots and the obligatory "nothing happened" news story, but that's it. It's almost an afterthought...

I'm not sure I have anything of profound interest to add to this. Just, well, it used to seem like the end of the earth if a few people had a bit of a party in amongst an ancient mystic site, and now it's just a bit of light-relief paganism and a "ooh, isn't it pretty" moment. Have we lost something or gained something by this? I'm really not sure...

Anyhow, I hope those who watched the sunrise felt something primal and spiritual stir inside them - growth and renewal and an acknowledgement of the balance of the year, a pivotal time, perhaps. As for the rest of us, I hope we feel it too, sometime. Maybe watching a sunrise or sunset or maybe just walking in the wind, sun or rain - something elemental anyway.

As the sun spirals its longest dance,
Cleanse us
As nature shows bounty and fertility
Bless us
Let all things live with loving intent
And to fulfill their truest destiny