(Developed by Lael and Adele Morgan for Jennifer Morgan’s 60th birthday.  See link for details)
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Sunday, March 1st I crossed over into my sixth decade.  My sisters created a ritual based on the Montessori Cosmic Education birthday ritual in which the child holds the earth and walks around a symbolic representation of the sun, one time for each year. I had no clue what they were planning. Without saying a thing, they turned down the lights, cleared the large round coffee table, covered it with a black table cloth, and brought sixty tea lights on plates. (Lighting those sixty candles required all hands on deck.) I could see that drums were being brought into the room, but no one said a thing. As soon as all the candles were lit, the drums thundered into life. As the drums pounded all around us, the candles were distributed all around the room symbolizing the Big Bang. My sister Lael brought in a remarkable sun cake she made placed on top of a board that she carefully sawed into the shape of a sun. See the picture. Labels for the months and candles where distributed around the sun. My other sister, Adele, created a song to the Donavan Leitch song Happiness Runs.   Adele created images of all the planets which were handed out. Then she handed the earth to me and told me to walk about the sun sixty times while they sang the song. Then, everyone else’s creativity exploded with a rap song, poems, pictures, recitations, and much more. What a way to cross the 60 year threshold!   Jennifer Morgan
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