Feeling great today. Very happy all day. I had an amazing lucid dream this morning wherein I saw my daddy, now dead for 4 years. I ran to hug him, and he was so solid! I half expected to put my hands through him, as if he were a ghost, but instead he was firm and very physical. I just kept hugging him and telling him how good it was to see him. He had an obscure message for me, that could have come straight out of a Harrison Ford spy movie, and he seemed very earnest to deliver it. So, being the solstice and all, I will seek out my best dream interpretation muses, and see if I can decode it. One thing is unmistakable. This was definitely my dad, the real deal, not a dream image. I was floored, aware that I was dreaming, and so found a bench to sit down with him and ask him more. One of the first things I asked was why was he appearing as his older self (he looked to be about ten years younger than the age at which he died), rather than a younger version of himself. He replied that he wanted to be sure that I recognized him. I am under the impression that we can create an idealized body after so-called physical death, and choose to look like radiant 30-year olds in the prime of health, forever if we choose. But I woke myself up shortly after this. I just got too excited, too emotional. What a cool dream.

Today I picked the hot, ripe plums that our loaded tree let drop to the ground, and juiced those. What a heady treat! They roll and hide themselves in the foliage, so it is a bit like an Easter egg hunt for purple eggs. What a gift.

When I was in the garden today I found a very large owl feather in my sacred medicine wheel, placed on a tree stump. Owl is my totem, and my lodge name, so this seemed a special solstice gift from nature. I wore it in my hair for a bit while I watered the thirsty plants, and visualized where a teepee would be a perfect addition to my sacred garden. a-HO!

I had enough energy again this evening to take a 2 mile walk. I am grateful to live in a safe neighborhood where walking in the dark is common. Except a lot of the folks out walking are on their way to and from the corner stores to buy their beer. The lines are long for the beer sales. This gives me a great deal of compassion for the human condition, and gratitude that I have always been other than attracted to alcohol. I understand, though, that any grains consumed have virtually the same effect as alcohol in the body once metabolized (sedative, brain fog, lack of muscular control … you can get drunk from carbs and sugar, and then want to pass out and sleep just like a drunk), and have of course experienced being drunk on carb overloads, and also have known the carb hangover the next day. So it is a blessing to be feasting and walking the streets at night when it cools. This way I can walk very fast and not get overheated, and enjoy the stretch up the hills.

At sunset the sky was filled with a flock of angels … sylph clouds spanning a mile or two area over my house, yet the sky was cloud free everywhere else. They all turned a glorious peachy-pink as the sun set, and I realized what a special day it has been.

I weighed myself today, and to my delight discovered I have released exactly 25 pounds since my birthday in January. I am so grateful that my clothes are not so tight as we hit the hot weather (it was 100 degrees today, but I didn’t feel it). Of course I attribute ALL of this success to juice feasting. It is my north star, guiding me to ever clearer levels of seeing and being.

It is said that a great release of light occurs on the solstices … and this is a time to breathe in that release of light, and allow ourselves to absorb and more fully become that light, consciously. I am so grateful to be juice feasting as that light enters all the earth. I feel uplifted, lighter, happier. Thank you to all that lives.