The Lusty Month of May

April 25 marked the new moon in the Mating Moon. This is the time of year when the birds are birding, the bees are beeing and the blooms are blooming all over the place. You can't walk out the door without some natural being shoving it's idea of sex in your face - cherry blossoms, singing robins, floating crane flies and wildflowers galore.

"The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May."- Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur

Living, as I do, in a culture with such schizophrenic ideas about sex I am always a bit conflicted in talking about the topic. Sexy women's bodies are used to sell everything from cars to cold medicine, our schools are pressured to teach abstenence only sex education, our young adults feel free to have promiscuous sex but our culture doesn't support women who stumble upon the natural conclusion of all that sex. What's a girl to do about sex?

"What is so sweet and dear

As a prosperous morn in May,

The confident prime of the day,

And the dauntless youth of the year,

When nothing that asks for bliss,

Asking aright, is denied,

And half of the world a bridegroom is,

And half of the world a bride?"

- William Watson, Ode in May, 1880

One thing to do about sex is think about the greater cosmic powers at play. Sex is about pleasure and partnership, yes, but it is at it's heart about creation. It is about two opposite forces coming together and from their swirling energy creating something new. Weather comes from the opposing forces of heat and cold, our bodies from the opposing forces of building and breaking down and babies from the opposing forces of male and female. Without the opposition we'd have cancer, deserts and barrenness. Ideas are usually born out of opposing forces as well. One of my favorite artists, Gustav Klimt, was greatly influenced by both his European predecssors and the new artistic ideas coming out of the Orient at the time he was actively working. With the meshing of the two ideas he created something new and exciting.

It is through the creative processes of these opposing forces that all things are created. I'm growing a garden for the first time in many years and am enjoying watching my little plants grow. Just as I am working on growing my lettuces and peas I'm also setting up a composting system. I will eventually need to replenish my soil and that require the breaking down of nutrients and decomposing of plant life.

"The trees are coming into leaf

Like something almost being said;

The recent buds relax and spread,

Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again

And we grow old? No, they die too,

Their yearly trick of looking new

Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh

In fullgrown thickness every May.

Last year is dead, they seem to say,

Begin afresh, afresh, afresh."

- Philip Larkin, The Trees

Get out there and see creation this month. Take a walk and count how many flowers you can see. Watch the trees shoot forth their leaves and notice the pollen on your windshield or on the surface of a puddle. What are you creating in your life this month?