Yesterday was the longest day of the year (in the Northern hemisphere), followed by the shortest night, and the girls and I marked the occasion by going for a walk on the beach at sunset.

(Photo of Malahide´s beach yesterday evening, with the sunlight seeping through the clouds.)

According to what I learned in school about the seasons of the year, June 21st marks the beginning of summer, but for places with Celtic tradition, like Ireland, we´re already halfway through summer, as the season started (according to their calendar) on May 1st. The story in Shakespeare´s famous play A midsummer night´s dream unfolds precisely around this date, as the title indicates.

In any case, the summer solstice is an occasion that many cultures have been celebrating for centuries. In Spain, the "christianized" version of this day (probably taken from the Celtic festival of Grianstad) is Saint John´s Eve, where fire is the protagonist, whether it´s in the form of bonfires or fireworks.

Today I had the privilege of participating in a small summer solstice celebration, with St. John´s water and sound bath included (thanks, Isabel!), and I´m thinking about preparing a micro-bonfire in a bowl tomorrow night, like in the old days... Why? Because these rituals help us to get grounded: they allow us to momentarily get away from the rush and the noise of daily life, and look inward, listen to ourselves for a little while, reflect on this first half of the year and think about our path going forward.

It´s time to feel renewed, to close some cycles and start new ones. To decide what we want to keep in our lives, what we want to attract and enhance, and what we want to stop holding on to, so that it can go away and let us move forward.

And you? What do you want to keep or attract at this moment in your life, and what do you want to free yourself from?