X354: X Design

The X design, winter solstice, the sun, no money, the long night, contemplative time, current local citrus, meditation, warmth and light all come together for me when I look at this cunning little instructables project. And, if I had a child in my life I would be thrilled to do this as a beautiful exercise to illustrate living lightly on the earth.

The slide show lesson is excruciatingly detailed, but a few photos might give you the general idea. Short version, the fruit is halved, fruit removed, x cut in top and center pulp stem is surrounded with oil and lit.

A similar instructables has an edited version like this and I love the final line of the step-by-step:"Just remember, don't leave these unattended! Fire burns stuff."
The fruit used is clementines.

A clementine is the fruit of a variety of mandarin (Citrus reticulata), named in 1902. A clementine is an oblate, medium-sized fruit. The exterior is a deep orange colour with a smooth, glossy appearance. Clementines separate easily into eight to fourteen extremely juicy segments. They are remarkably easy to peel, like a tangerine, but lack the tangerine's sourness and seeds.

I suspect the ease of peeling is the primary reason it is used for this candle, but I have Myer lemons available from a neighbor’s tree and I think I need to give it a try.

I remember years ago doing an orange meditation. I was directed to spend 20 minutes a day looking at the orange and letting all of its ‘orangeness’ unfold. There is a vast amount of life and metaphor within this orange globe. It was a good experience, aside from feeling guilty when I skipped and feeling useless when my mind went berserker on me.

2009 Let the Sun Shine

I think I might pull that meditation out of deep storage and use it this upcoming year. Simple is good.