Here we are sitting at the very tippy top of summer, held there like a giant swing about to be plunged back into the liquid heat that is Arkansas from June to September. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of reasons to be super excited. Watermelons from Cave City in just a bit, we have strawberries from Cabot, and soon right down the road will be fresh tomatoes. I am ready. I will eat tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches until it feels like my face might fall off, and I make no apologies for it.
Summer presents us with so many gifts and trials all at once. Travel gets heavy, family visits, everything seems to happen all at one time! As we inch ever closer to the high Summer Solstice and the slow progression back into the dark, what are you ready to let go of? What are you ready to lean into? What parts of you need rest, and what parts need to be stretched and expanded in new directions? Where is your soul being led – that innermost part of you, where the real you resides and hides and tries to make it through another day? What direction is that inner person going and what can we do to help get there?
The Build is Only as Good as the Builder
I know many of us are on the road, traveling to and fro, from festivals, vacations, reunions, shows, you name it! June begins and the ants start marching to and fro. Many of us are gathered up collectively all over the country at different festivals, trying with all our might to survive the crushing heat and onslaught of blood sucking buggies. While you are immersed in that juicy goodness of being with those that are of a like mind, open your eyes and your heart to see what is drawing you in.
Most often we are drawn to qualities in others that we love in ourselves. I have the most wonderful group of friends. They are all incredibly different and exquisitely unique, however they are all immensely kind human beings. Many years ago I determined that kindness would be the first thing I looked for in others, and I strive daily to keep it a priority in my life. The other side of that coin is not allowing others to steal or taint my kindness based on their actions.
On Being a Spicy Honey Badger
The world is on fire; however, we get to choose how we interact with the flames. I will not allow my joy, softness or kindness to be dimmed or dulled by the heat. Never fear, I am the same spicy Honey Badger I’ve always been. I’ve just realized I can be both and the same at exactly the same time. I have found that going out into the world requires a certain amount of self protection. And self protection should never stop at just physical protection!
When we are rooted in joy and gratitude it makes it harder to fall into despair, and allows us to interact with the atrocities of the world from a place of calmness and action. I like to envision a big shiny bubble all around me – think Glenda bubble here, filled with roses and big, soft, pink pillows. Does it sound a bit cheesy and overdone? Probably, but it’s my dang bubble. You can blow your bubble anyway you want. I try to keep kindness and joy in the front of my mind all day. If you have a particular Goddess or Saint you work with, this is also a good time to hang some iconography from the proverbial rear view mirror and get a little extra covering that way. I like to picture me and my bubble just bouncing off the crumb buckets of the world and floating down the road.
If you choose to create a shield, make it something that resonates with you. Is it a place you would sit and relax? Have you created an area that truly reflects what you want to work on? Is it a place of safety? Can you fully envision it at a seconds notice? Our shields are only as good as we build them. As for me and my bubble, we’ll see ya down the road!
Stop All That Yapping and Get to Doing!
Lastly if you feel yourself being pulled into a direction and it just keeps tugging at you, maybe give it a go. It may not be something you’d ever imagined, or a place or job or group of people you may not have ever felt drawn to before. I feel like we are living our lives on the set of Inception, as the world constantly shifts and changes and refolds on itself almost daily.
As you have heard many times before, stop and listen to that still small voice. That wriggling idea in the back of your mind, that project you’ve dreamed of doing. Maybe a quilt you’ve always wanted to make, maybe a mural you’ve dreamt of bringing to life in your home. Maybe your memoirs. Now is the time. We must keep creating, it is our only weapon against the machine.
New Music on the Horizon
I am thrilled to share my current project. I am 8 songs into a 17 song project built around A Feral Church, a book written by my dear friend Byron Ballard (aforementioned giver of the Badger badge). That book has been a lifeline to me as I have navigated healing and walking a more purpose-filled life. I have moved from Winter Solstice to Summer Solstice and look forward to sharing these songs with you. Each song has been written in its time and season and I look forward to the completed work at Yule. I am sharing the first song Refuge from what I have lovingly nicknamed the hymnal here with you. I hope you enjoy it as you are called back to the wild, back to the place you first found the Great Her.
If you have a place of quiet and privacy, I encourage you to sit down with this song, listen fully within your heart. Remember that first heart beat, that first moment the Great Her reached into your chest and breath filled your lungs.
Refuge
Refuge lyrics and music by Krista Chapman Green (c) 2026
Weave within me the workings,
To walk this Wilderness bare.
That I might find my refuge and solace there in Her care.
The Road Ahead and a Ray of Light
I am headed back to surgery in July, and I’m a bit terrified. Right now there are no other options. I have issues that have to be dealt with, and my surgeon has an opening July 14th, so here we go. I trust him fully and try to remind myself he is not the previous doctor. He is amazing and feels confident all will be well, so I am running with it.
As I sat with that fear and rereading a few chapters of A Feral Church. I realized my fears were based on an idea that I don’t even hold. The thought that somehow a lack of breath in this body meant life was over had grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go. I sat with my fears, I wrote them down, I faced them. I have always believed we never truly die, we simply change. Yet I had allowed fear to take the driver’s seat.
Ray of Light was born from that fear. Once the fear was seen, held, and acknowledged, I could move past it. If you are faced with a fear or task right now that just feels too heavy, write it down. All of it, all of the little parts and pieces. The good, the bad, the ugly. Write it all down. Give it life outside your head, look at it, and then let it go.
Ray of Light lyrics and music by Krista Chapman Green (c) 2026
When they set me loose I will soar and fly,
A spirit free in the falcons eye.
You will feel my love in the evening wind,
And hear my voice when it’s morn again.
What Are We Doing?
These are the days for doing, not talking. Don’t let anyone tell you any different. Now is the time we put our hands to work on things outside of the keyboard. We are building a new world. That project or idea you have been kicking around in your head may be just exactly what we need. There are an awful lot of talkers in this big world, yet we seem to remain lacking of doers globally.
I am doing a very small bit of traveling in June. I will be at Pagan Unity Festival (PUF) June 18-21 this year. I am over-the-moon excited to be joining the amazing group there, and so honored to have been asked by SJ Tucker to join them. If you will be attending. please do come find me and give me a squeeze. I am gathering up all the good juju I can before this next surgery. I will be in Little Rock, AR June 26-28 for the Enchanted Mystics Market. I’m so thankful for my musical family.
I’ve also just accepted a full time position as an Art Teacher and any and all blessings on that great endeavor are greatly appreciated. I am having a summer art camp early in June and can’t wait to share time and space with these amazing kiddos. To be part of the care , encouragement and education of children I believe is one of the greatest gifts we can give to the world in general. Children – given the chance to learn in a caring, warm and safe environment – thrive. To be able to create an outlet for these children through art is both exciting and sobering. Our children and art, I believe fully, are the only paths forward.
Blessings to you all. May your summer be full of fun and friends and family. May your ice tea stay cold and your popsicles never melt.
Get to building, get to creating and get to work.
I’ll see ya down the road.
Krista Chapman Green
Featured photo by Krista Chapman Green.
For more information about Krista Chapman Green, including her collected articles here on Pagan Song, her bio, and links to Krista’s sites on the web, check out Krista’s page on Pagan Song.
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