The Longest Light
Reclaiming the matriarchal wisdom our souls remember
🌸 ikigai 生き甲斐 is a reason for being, your purpose in life - from the Japanese iki 生き meaning life and gai 甲斐 meaning worth 🌸
Today the wheel turns. The sun reaches its fullest stretch across our sky, then begins its slow dance back toward winter. My Manx blood remembers this rhythm, though I sometimes forget how to feel it in my bones.
The women before me, those fierce Celtic grandmothers and sea-weathered Viking souls knew something we've lost in our rush toward always-on, always-more. They understood that light has seasons. That fullness comes before release. That paying attention to these moments wasn't mystical nonsense but survival wisdom.
Standing stones still mark these turnings across the Isle of Man. Ancient women gathered at circles like these because they knew that we are cyclical beings pretending to be linear ones.
The summer solstice asks us to pause. To raise our heads. To notice that we've reached peak light before it starts to ebb. To feel the fullness of now instead of rushing toward what's next.
Those of us hunched over laptops, scrolling through feeds, measuring worth in productivity metrics, need these rituals more than ever. We shouldn’t abandon progress, but we need to moderate some of it more than we do, because we've forgotten how to taste our lives while we're living them.
We’ve lost some of our knowing in our bones, the matriarchal understanding that purpose isn't a chase but something you align with. The women that came before didn't hustle for their ikigai, they listened for it. They knew that meaning emerges from relationship… to the land, to each other, to the rhythms that govern all living things. They understood that your truest work flows from your deepest nature, not from forcing yourself into shapes that don't fit.
We've replaced their body wisdom with brain wisdom. Their intuitive knowing with endless analysis. Their trust in timing with our demand for immediate answers. We've forgotten that purpose, like the seasons, has its own pace. That some callings only reveal themselves when we stop running toward them and start moving with the current of our actual lives.
Today the light reaches its furthest point. The invitation whispers across centuries… stop. breathe. notice. honour what you have before it changes.
The wheel keeps turning whether we pay attention or not… the magic only happens when we do.
Sarah, seeking ikigai xxx
PS - Journal with the solstice; What in your life has reached its fullest expression right now? What deserves to be celebrated before it naturally begins to shift? Write about the rhythms you've been ignoring and the seasonal wisdom your body already knows.
PPS - Try this AI prompt; "I'm reflecting on the summer solstice and the wisdom of cycles. Help me identify what phase of life I'm in right now… am I in a season of growth, fullness, harvest, or rest? What would honouring this phase look like in practical terms?"
PPPS - Today's soundtrack is "Here Comes The Sun" by The Beatles, the pure joy of warmth and light might be a cheesy choice but one that is hard to beat *grin* .. and it reminds me that especially here on the Isle of Man we should definitely honour the light while we have it!
PPPPS - The witch grandmothers knew that your energy has seasons too. Some months you're meant to expand and create and shine. Others call for drawing inward, for tending smaller fires, for letting things compost in the dark. Fighting your natural rhythms exhausts you. Following them feeds you. Today’s solstice asks, which season is your soul in right now?
