Missing Beltane

I didn’t celebrate Beltane this year.

Is it bad to admit that?

I had just gotten back from traveling, and I was actually driving my parents to the airport. I’d dropped them off and just barely remembered to take the parking brake off (I never use it when I’m not on a hill and my dad always does, so that’s tricky). I had a very good audiobook going (Cara Bastone’s Ready or Not, sweet, sexy, hilarious) and the sun was setting out my window when I realized…Oh. It’s Beltane.

These things happen. Life gets in the way. I wish I could say I carved out the time to have a ritual celebration of every pagan holiday every year…but I don’t. It’s difficult to do, isn’t it, when the world revolves around different holidays and traditions. I celebrate pagan holidays precisely because I want to have rituals that are separate from all of that, that feel removed from capitalism and social obligation, but the fact of the matter is that without that structure these intentions can fall by the wayside. My kid still has homework to do on Beltane, after all.

It’s all right. I waved farewell to the sun as it set, and laughed at the (ahem!) carnal antics of the pregnant main character as I drove down the highway, and all of that feels very in keeping with the essence of Beltane.

I think sometimes that’s all magic and ritual has to be. We’re busy people with jobs and families and most of us don’t actually have a lifestyle that allows us to craft beautiful, instagram-worthy experiences that look “magical enough.” A ritual can be a moment, when a moment is all that we have.