A glorious, joyous Beltane to you and yours!

Beltane is a time for joy and love. It can be romantic, familial or sexual. But it can also be the love of purpose and meaning--i.e. passion for creativity, craft or calling. It can also be love and acceptance of others in the world. 

Reach out to someone of another culture, religion or social group. Not in some grand way, where you save someone. Just in a personal way, like a friend and neighbor. Reach out with an everyday action such as inviting someone to a party, even though they aren't exactly the same as your "regular" friends. Or make space for someone to speak who is usually fairly quiet at meetings. When there is someone in your class or on your street with a disability or other difference, make sure they are welcome and invited when friends and neighbors get together--not out of charity but because that's the kind of world you want to live in. 

Include. Even when there is a small risk. This is how we become unified. 

Gaia, Damu, Durga, Atabey, Nammu, Mawu, Pachamama!

Our mother the earth, blessed are your names.

Blessed are your forests, deserts, marshes and mountains.

Blessed are your waters, your life blood that gives life to all.

Blessed is your breath, the air that maintains our spark of life.

Blessed are all your growing plants, herbs and trees. 

Blessed are all the creatures, your children. We are one family.

Blessed are all the people of this earth.. 

The same rhythm beats in every stranger's throat.

Blessed are the sun and moon, blessed are the stars,

givers of light that fill our hearts with awe.

Soul of the earth, our mother, blessed is your name.

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Arie Farnam

Arie Farnam is a war correspondent turned peace organizer, a tree-hugging herbalist, a legally blind bike rider, the off-road mama of two awesome kids, an idealist with a practical streak and author of the Kyrennei Series. She grew up outside La Grande, Oregon and now lives in a small town near Prague in the Czech Republic.