1 May / 8 sumars dag
Valborg / May day
Happy May day

When I was a child we celebrated May day by making small baskets out of paper, twine, twigs, they were rustic not meant to last. A handle was the important part and they had to have enough integrity to hold a bouquet of flowers. […]

30 April
namnsdag Marianna
the (left) hand of creativity
Valborgsmässoafton - tonight the bonfires are lit .
This last night of April celebrates Spring’s arrival, cattle are moved to the paturelands, bonfires are lit, young men and women join hands, we relax into the outward breath of life.

29 April | 6 sumar day
Namnsdag Kennet
kenneth, Kent
Rune Ken: inner wisdom
Ignites the fire within us

Laugh and call of spring is splashing down from the mountains a gold and silver music threading through the forest.
can you hear
the creek running
in your veins?
Sunlight in water washes over the land carrying the message everywhere….

25 April
Namnsdag Marcus, Mark

Today is the namnsdag of my brother. He arrived in the world three years ahead of me and several weeks ahead of a body that was ready to receive him. In 1949 this premature entry had consequences, which today technology has mostly eliminated. Shortly after birth he suffered an apnea, that is […]

By the old count today is the first day of summer. The light is ascendant and the feminine is exalted.
24 April
Namnsdag Vega Viveka
mend what is broken,
We mend fences both literally and figuratively, so we may move into the next cycle caring for earth, planting, tending, mending in a nicely balanced life.

Today is 180 Vetrar. the last day of winter in the old Nordic calendar. The year is divided into two parts summer | winter. This division was the practice of Native Americans on the Northwest coast also - Tsetseka (winter) & Bakoos (summer).

Tomorrow is the first day of Harpa, the first month of sumar. […]

Time is different for everyone
how we sense it
mark it

I have been poking around in the very old Eddas, finding pieces which seem to correlate to the stonedances or stone circles from several thousand years ago. Bits of it you have heard in the winter Namnsdag cycle. Interestingly, my ancestors from circumpolar Scandinavia share many similarities […]

Namnsdag: Patricia, Patrik
16 April

Soft light spills through the thickets
frogs are singing
everything is lengthening, softening, filling

Letting go of the valley
last year’s plowridges are found
winter returns to the mountains

Earthquakes, dry wind, spring floods all leave their mark as they form a desert valley between granite ranges.