Renewal

For most, July is the “middle” of the year, when things slow down and get lazy, the heat of the summer (or the cold of the winter, if you’re in the other hemisphere) starts getting to you, and thoughts turn not to immediate plans but the past and the future. For me, it’s the final month of the liturgical year in Kemetic Orthodoxy. As I’ve been practicing this religion since the late 1980s, my life definitely has a rhythm that July is not the middle, but the round-up and wind-up of everything I’ve been up to since last July. July is time to tie up the loose ends, finish the projects, and prepare for what is coming in August and beyond.

This July is no exception. Though I did start something new – my Patreon projects, specifically, are now live and seem to be doing well so far – I am mostly in wrap-up and ending stage on other things. I’m giving my first paper as a Ph.D. candidate at an annual Coptic Studies conference in a couple of weeks, and am finalizing my presentation for that. I’m finishing up work on the Ancient Egyptian Daybook Planner and shipping of the many boxes of the original Daybook that released earlier this year. I’ve figured out my healthcare situation so I can go see a doctor about some things I needed to look into months ago, and otherwise making changes in my life to make it better – or at very least, a little less stressful. No steady paycheck since last October has been an eye-opening and sometimes frustrating experience. Any way I can work on making that less difficult is a good way.

And as I wind down, I also remember that I celebrate my birthday in July, though I don’t know that I really do or have celebrated it in any meaningful way in some years. This year is a workday and also unlikely to be anything memorable or fancy. It’s just another day on an arbitrary counting of days, after all. At the same time, it’s also a memory marker, and a reminder that I’m still alive and I’m still here and doing the things and living my life. This is a blessing I’ve been glad to have every year since the first time I found out I had cancer, way back when I was 25. I don’t worry about getting old. Can’t say I enjoy the new aches and pains much, or that it’s all pleasant all the time. But every year I get is one I once thought maybe I wouldn’t get. That? Is definitely worth celebrating, and I will celebrate it again this year, even if it’s quietly by myself. Looking forward to the renewals of this July, and I hope that you are too.