Blessed Lughnasadh!

Once again, it has been a while since I last posted. I am hoping that once I have finished my degree I will have more time to devote to my craft. If nothing else I will have access to more of my tools!

Tomorrow is Lughnasadh, the festival of Lugh. The first harvest is coming in, and as the first grains are cut the Sun God begins to weaken and die, and the wheel turns towards winter. This is the first Sabbat I have had the chance to celebrate properly since Ostara, and I am looking forward to it!
I have learnt the hard way this year that sometimes you cannot honour the Sabbat with a festival or a ritual, but there are things you can do to mark they day as special in your heart. I have been doing that for the last few Sabbats, but tomorrow I am pulling out all the stops.

I will be baking my own bread and cakes for the Simple Feast, and with my boyfriend and my friend I am going out into the woods where I will perform a brief ritual and then we will share my picnic. In the theme of the first harvest we are keeping our picnic to suitable foods, fresh bread, cheeses, ham, berries and grapes, and cakes with honey.
I have created my ritual through looking at a variety of examples online and choosing the elements that I feel best represent me and my personal spirituality. I suggest that you do the same. There are alot of good sites out there. Recently I discovered College Wicca and it has  been very helpful for finding ways to mark the Sabbats that don't require fire, as my accomodation does not allow candles, incense, or essential oils. It's been there for a while, but the ideas are good.
I plan to have us take a long walk with the picnic, gathering wild flowers, berries and nuts along the way for the altar. When we get there I will perform my ritual while my friends wait and talk, and then we will sit together, share the Simple Feast, and talk over the last year together, giving thanks for the things that turned out well and analysing the things that didn't so that we learn from our mistakes. We will read poetry, meditate, and watch the sunset.
It is a simple plan, but I am really looking forward to it. I feel a need to get back to nature, to relax and open myself up once more to the Earth and enjoy these last days of summer. Maybe I am not alone in that feeling.

Blessed be!