What to Expect this Week from an Old Hollow Tree

June 16 - 22

Ah, here we are at the year’s good green meridian. These long June days, bought and paid for in the winter-dark of January, seem to stand still. There’s the original meaning of the word “solstice” for you: sun-still.

Amid the solstitium however, we have the path clear and open before us. All year these digital pages of mine have been advising you to reflect on what you want to make and to be patient while winter gives way to spring.

Well, now you get to run. All year you have been stretching, lacing up your boots, waiting. Now? The path is clear and it is straight. Whatever you have been preparing for, whatever you have been building, now can be the full focus. We so often wish we had infinite time. Well, the sol stilt day may be the closest you get.

That will be the focus this week: good green action amid the stasis of the long day.

Wednesday’s Reflections Remain Free

A programming note, if you will: the normal free reflection on Wednesdays continue to be free for all despite showing as a “Paid post” when you receive the email. I added an additional section for paid subscribers at the end of these articles last week and, even if we put one sentence behind the paywall here on Substack, the entire post is delivered to the reader as “paid”. Such is the way of things.

As a side note: paid subscribers get access to this new section suggesting tangible actions you can take to live a more grounded life, related to that week’s reflection. Here is last week’s from The Wound and the Cure and the kind of thing you can expect if you decide to support this publication:

Three Actions to Live a More Grounded Life this June

1. Designate an “Unplugged Afternoon” Each Week
   Choose one afternoon each week this summer to be completely screen-free. No phones, no tablets, no background media. Use this time to go for a walk, sit under a tree, swim in a lake, or simply watch the clouds. Let the day shape itself around presence instead of productivity or distraction.

2. Learn One Plant That Heals
   Go outside and learn to identify a single local plant with healing properties: jewelweed, plantain, yarrow, or another common remedy. Learn not just its name, but where it grows, what it looks like, how it smells, and how to use it. When the moment comes, whether from a bee sting or a scraped knee, you’ll be grounded in both knowledge and place.

3. Reclaim a Simple Summer Ritual
   Bring back one ritual from the summers of your childhood: catching fireflies, making lemonade, reading on the porch, lying on your back in the grass. Choose something that takes no technology, costs no money, and anchors you to the season. Repeat it often. Make it sacred.

These actions are small. They are gestures toward a better way however, a perennial pattern, toward the jewelweed growing quietly beside the nettle.

An Echo from the Past - The Radiant Ascent

The Radiant Ascent

Echoes from an Old Hollow Tree is a perennial publication. It is meant to be enjoyed by you every season of every year, and it is something to which you can return when you need a quiet reflection in a noisy neon world.

This time last year, we were reflecting on the imbalance of the summer solstice and trying to find equilibrium in it.

The world so often demands our rage. It traffics in it really. There is a vast market for despair in our wounded world, and business is good. Open social media or the news any day of the week and a thousand talking heads will tell you that your dreams are too lofty, that the conditions aren’t right, that the odds are insurmountable, that you should give up. Rage bait, fake news, and videos doctored, edited, designed with the sole intent of making you mad.

Interestingly (presciently?) I included a few headlines to drive the point home this time last year:

As the fires of war rage on the horizon, a writer like me can offer little solace. Those who came before me were wiser and more grounded in what mattered though. Here is C.S. Lewis encouraging you to keep calm and carry on amid the threat of the atom bomb, which I find relevant today.

Have a calm and reflective week as we run up toward the summer solstice and I will see you on Wednesday with a good green reflection.

Yours in the hills of Vermont,

Ryan