The Bittersweetness of RIPENING
(Nancy Rosulek Kramer)

The summer has arrived.
The revolution of our earth in relation to that mass of hot fiery gases we call our sun, is just so-
that the ice is fully melted from the mountains, the soil is warm
And every living thing is PULSING with energy
Maximum chlorophyll levels, full biomass, high concentrations of sugar in the fruits
LIFE IS RIPE.
In our fruits and in body, we are ripe, we are fleshy and sweet… we have made it.

With this ripening…comes a sense of heaviness.
The branches who have firmly held us and supplied our life blood…
They may begin to bend and sag, and eventually these branches will break.
It is in our ripeness- that we begin to feel our mortality, and of those around us... heavier in our hearts
The vulnerability of the SHELLS of the SPIRITS- our grandparents and parents…
and even the shells of the spirits of some little ones…
Passing on… and into another dimension of space and time no human can comprehend-
And with each new day we are blessed with, each fresh awakening, with each new baby who comes into our lives and brings us hope and joy,
We recognize deeper and deeper in our hearts…
That all life breaks down WITHOUT exception-
And no matter how much peace we have
 with the miraculous wonder and perfection of the cycle of life
This inevitable breakdown of THESE shells of the spirit are
our MOMS, our DADS, our SISTERS and BROTHERS,
our FAMILY and FRIENDS, and sometimes our CHILDREN.

And the HEAVINESS that comes with this reality, like a load of rocks on our chest, a tightness in our throats, the welling of tears in our eyes…
That feeling is LIFE itself.
With no other feeling more REAL than this.
We search for a sense of resolution, we seek comfort, the elixir for our struggles, our fears,
our pain and feeling of vulnerability
May we find it in the supportive and healing power of the collective human spirit
growing in awareness and acceptance that we are meant in every way
to have union with the women around us.

As the umbilical cord of our ripening lives thins, we increasingly feel
the womb of support from our women elders releasing us, pushing us onward and upward
to a new level of expectation, accountability, responsibility, wisdom and duty.
The zone where we are learning how to gracefully juggle the honorable duty of raising our babies and juveniles- and finding the delicate space where we need to be for our elders,
it commands alertness, maturity, acceptance, ripening and grace.

There is much relief in the company of all of us- facing the same circumstances in various forms.
that we, as women, have faced since the beginning of time.

So let us JOIN HANDS.
May we feel the warmth of the fire before us,
the freshness of the breeze that sustains us,
and the river flowing beside us.
May we feel the strength of LIFE’S PULSE.

May our spirits be STIRRED by the sweetness of this SEASON in OUR LIVES
May we find reassurance in the company of each other
Comfort in awareness that we are all sisters in this species,
and that we are all divinely composed by the universe’s SAME basic elements-
Those which are all aligned in this moment, by means of a molecular miracle, to be us, together, here, NOW.
May we feel RIPE.