Flower Moon & Summer Begins (Long)

The “Beginning of Summer (Li Xia)” – the Chinese calendar node for May 5th.
The Full Flower Moon will be on Thursday, May 7th.

I have been doing quite a bit outdoors at our home since the New Flower Moon, and am hoping to finish at least my current projects by Thursday, when the moon will be full. Being attuned to the seasonal shifts is something important to me, particularly in such an unusual time. So I gardened by the moon cycles, too. It started right before the New Moon, with me cleaning up and weeding as much as I could ahead of time. I told myself to focus on one or two projects for now – and stay within a budget that had been doubled with the surprise sale of one of my old web domains.

The projects for this time were: Setting up some raised beds for vegetable gardening (even if I don’t start planting until fall), cleaning out and adding stepping stones to the path on the side of the house, adding some life to an unused, devoid area of the back deck, and planting some favorite shrubs. My days soon moved into a pattern of: morning Daoist recitations, working from home, then outdoors work for a few hours, followed by Daoist meditation, recitation and reading before bed.

I was not expecting this work to take a ‘Karate Kid Miyagi-san task-work training’ turn, but I realized that it had after the first couple of days. One of the things I have been studying in my Qigong training is Bagua Circle Walking. A couple of my issues in Qigong practice in general are a lack of much flexibility, and dealing with pain. After exhausting myself with yard work for the first week, I realized that I was limbering up a touch, and actually starting to grow stronger. With every pulled weed, hauled pile of soil or stone, or shoveling task, I was feeling more in touch with my body. I feel as though my circle-walking practice will certainly improve.

Summer begins this week, according to the Chinese Seasonal Node, and it does so two days ahead of the Full Flower Moon. You can certainly tell. Working with the land as the temps in my seaside region rose and fell, I had a front-row seat to some wonderful displays of life. Today, I watched a male cardinal in a fierce hunt of a massive dragonfly. He did eventually succeed, after chasing the insect through the air and over the ground. I have been watching the brazen mating displays by our resident lizards, their colors varying and stunning. My husband and I, driving down the street in a neighborhood about a mile from our home saw a male peacock walking down the bike lane, as casual as could be.

Butterflies are back, as are wasps and bees, flies and mosquitoes, and I’m hearing seasonal serenades of bullfrogs in the pond next door, and calls from hawks and ospreys. One of the most amazing things for me to experience had to do with some gardening I’ve been doing beneath a tall Yaupon holly tree. I was preparing to plant something, and realized that I kept hearing a soft but consistent buzzing… as if a hive were somewhere in my neighbor’s yard. Then… I looked up. The holly tree is blossoming, and HUNDREDS of flying insects were enjoying the spoils. Bees, wasps, flies, and beetles were flying and buzzing overhead. Birds were feasting on the critters as well. Though moderately intimidated by anything that can fly and sting, I was too in awe to have an intense reaction. I was thrilled to see so many pollinators just outside the backyard fence.

The list of interesting observations in these endeavors is long, and ongoing. I hope to have most of my projects complete by Thursday, and will take some photos and post them on my Facebook. But for now, evening recitation and meditation are calling…