Fires of Love, Fields of Labor: May Day Meets Workers’ Day

May Day: Honoring All the Work That Sustains Us

May 1st is a day of paradox and power. It’s Beltane, a time of fertility, fire, and renewal in Pagan traditions — when the Earth’s abundance begins to blossom, and we honor life bursting forth in all its forms. It’s also International Workers’ Day, a day of protest, remembrance, and solidarity rooted in the labor movement and the fight for dignity and justice for all who work.

These two May Days — one ancient, one modern — share more than a calendar date. Both remind us that life requires tending. That something sacred happens whenever people rise up, plant seeds, or care for one another. And both call us to remember: not all labor wears a uniform or draws a paycheck.

Ripe Figs, CC0

The Work ThatGrows the World

The Earth Works. We Work.

Beltane is a celebration of Earth’s labor — the flowering, the fruiting, the unseen toil of root and mycelium. It’s also a reminder that human survival depends on the often invisible work of care: food grown, meals cooked, children held, elders supported, bodies and communities tended.

International Workers’ Day lifts up the labor struggles of wage earners — especially those who’ve been exploited, underpaid, or made invisible by systems that value profit over people. But the meaning of “worker” cannot stop at factory gates or office doors.

Judy Heumann and Barbara Ransom pose for a photograph at TASH's Outstanding Leadership in Disability Law Symposium and Awards Dinner on July 25, 2019. Photo by Bailey Hill CC4.0

The Work of Surviving

So many people — especially disabled, queer, racialized, and impoverished folks — do not survive because they are “productive.” They survive through grit, mutual aid, community, and the sacred labor of persistence.

There is holy work in getting out of bed when the world is heavy.

There is holy work in navigating systems that weren’t built for your body or brain.

There is holy work in staying alive, in dreaming of something better, in loving what the world tells you is unlovable.

Women’s Work, Love’s Work

Historically, “women’s work” — often unpaid, often unseen — has included birthing, feeding, caregiving, cleaning, mending, nursing, comforting, teaching. This labor is the backbone of every society, yet so rarely honored.

And what about the work of loving? Loving our people, our communities, the land, the sacred, ourselves? That’s not soft. That’s revolutionary. Love is a practice. A risk. A labor.

A boxing club on a snowy day in Lower Manhattan

Try It: Expand Your Definition of Work

• Name a kind of work you do that you’ve never been paid for. Say it aloud. Claim it. It counts.
• Honor someone in your life who works in unseen or undervalued ways — send a note, light a candle, share their story.
• Join in collective action — not just protests, but community meals, mutual aid drives, or spaces of joy and solidarity. The work of changing the world is shared.

Stonehenge on May 1, photo by “Stonehenge tours” CC2.0

Sacred Renewal, Fierce Solidarity

Beltane reminds us that renewal is possible. That growth follows long winters. That life insists.

International Workers’ Day reminds us that no one is free until all are free. That change is built through collective effort. That every kind of laborer deserves respect and rest.

So today, may we:

• Celebrate what is blossoming
• Refuse what is dehumanizing
• Honor all the work — waged and unwaged, visible and invisible — that sustains life

You are whole, holy, and worthy.
Your work — all of it — matters.

Rev. Amy

See also these posts
• Holding on to What Is Good – Reflects on how to notice, name, and preserve what is still life-giving in times of loss or transition. https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/03/holding-on-to-what-is-good.html

• You Belong Here – Exploring the Way You Can Make a Difference – Affirms each person’s unique role in collective healing and justice. https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/02/you-belong-here-your-place-in-work-of.html
• Finding Meaning in a Troubled World – Looks at how spiritual practices and discernment can ground us in purpose and resilience in the face of injustice. https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/02/finding-meaning-in-troubled-world-power.html
• Stories to Sustain Us: Building the World We Dream Of – Highlights the power of storytelling and history as tools of resistance and care. https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/01/stories-to-sustain-us-building-world-we.html

• When the World Is on Fire: Why Spiritual Direction Still Matters – Explores how spiritual tending offers grounding, meaning, and compassionate presence in the midst of global crisis and collective grief.
https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/04/when-world-is-on-fire-why-spiritual.html

• No Hope: Keep Moving Despite Despair – Reflects on how commitment, love, anger, and care can sustain action when hope feels unreachable, and why our world urgently needs our engagement. https://abeltaine.blogspot.com/2025/04/no-hope-keep-moving-despite-despair.html

For Further Exploration

• Federici, Silvia. Caliban and the Witch – A powerful look at the history of women’s unpaid labor and its connection to capitalism and oppression. https://bookshop.org/p/books/caliban-and-the-witch-silvia-federici/11617556
• The Nap Ministry – Explores rest as a form of resistance, especially for Black folks and people marginalized by capitalism. https://thenapministry.com
• Disability Visibility Project – Celebrates the stories, labor, and lives of disabled people. https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com
• adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy – A beautiful framework for social change rooted in nature, interdependence, and care. https://bookshop.org/p/books/emergent-strategy-shaping-change-changing-worlds-adrienne-maree-brown/6206257

#MayDay

#Beltane

#AllWorkMatters

#SacredLabor

#SolidarityAndRenewal

#UnseenWork

#JusticeAndJoy

A Guided Meditation:

Words here:

1. Arrival – Sensing the Seat (1 min)

Let’s arrive.

Notice what’s holding you—chair, floor, cushion.

Take a breath. Let your weight settle into that support.

Can you feel gravity doing its work? That quiet labor of the Earth, always holding you?

2. Breath (1 min)

Bring attention to your breath. No need to change it.

Just notice: breath going in, breath going out.

The breath works for us without being asked.

A rhythm of labor and rest, effort and ease.

Honor that—your breath, your body, already working, already wise.

3. Hands (2–3 min)

Bring your attention to your hands.

Rub them together gently—create some warmth.

These are hands that work. Hands that care, cook, write, clean, type, soothe, hold, plant.

Stretch them open, then gently close. Do this a few times, slowly.

As you do, imagine the hands of others:

• The ones whose work you depend on but do not see.
  
  

• The ones who offer spiritual care, emotional labor, unseen tending.
  
  

• The hands that shaped your day, your path, your sacred life.
  
  

Now place your hands on your heart, your belly, or down on your thighs—wherever feels most grounding.

Say to yourself, silently or aloud:

“My work is sacred. All work is sacred. I honor the unseen labor.”

Let that settle.

4. Rooted in the Web (1–2 min)

Imagine your body as part of a great web—of workers, of ancestors, of land and breath and action.

Some parts of the web are visible, named, celebrated.

Some parts are hidden—but no less essential.

Can you feel yourself held in that web? Can you feel how you also hold others?

Take one more breath.

And when you’re ready, gently blink your eyes open.

Welcome back.