Pumpkin Time!
It's pumpkin time on my new allotment. I have been waiting for this pumpkin to ripen for several weeks. Stuck on top of a heap, a sort of compost heap, but really to call it that would be a bit generous as it is full of bits of branches, lumps of concrete and bramble. Needless to say, having fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, that heap wasn't something I was going to wrestle with! So what to do with it? Plant two pumpkin seedlings on it, talk to them and see if they would grow.
This then, was the result.
This round glowing magical orb glowed among the weeds, dead leaves and detruitus.
Good Fortune Is Only Good fortune When Shared
For me good fortune is only good fortune if it is shared, so naturally my first pumpkin had to be celebrated in grand style. I took it to share in my druid group.
The wonderful thing about sharing is the knock on effects of doing so. This is how we create community and weave people together with each other and with nature.
A Traditional Pumpkin Story
Naturally enough my thoughts strayed to a version of the cinderella story featuring a pumpkin that turns into a carriage. My pumpkin doesn't transport a princess in the making but it transport good wishes, sustenance and gratitude for a good harvest. Pumpkins of course hollow out as they grow suspending reams of seeds in their centres. These are the keeping princesses who will awake to flourish and flower in the world.
Alban Elfed With Hawk Rising!
Hawk Rising! is the official Hawk druid group for Staffordshire and a seed group with OBOD, the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. We had all brought things along to place around the altar to symbolise the harvest time of equinox. My pumpkin ended up taking centre stage in the middle!
Dis-Ability Empowered
Of course on bad days I wouldn't be able to lift a pumpkin, I wouldn't make it out of the house in fact. It can be hard living with a disability, but of course in sharing things when we not only build up good will, we are also empowered to make a difference in the world. In this case providing food for another' table.
Pumpkin Plant Medicine
Pumpkin teaches generosity of spirit and abundance. It also teaches us that sometimes things can turn up in unexpected guises. The poor ragged girl turns out to be a princess, disabled people can feed others.
Everyone took a slice of pumpkin and in doing so they all took seeds away too. Seeds that they can keep and plant out for their own pumpkin plants. Every action plants a seed. What will yours be?
Amanda Claire x