Winter Solstice - Leaning into the light

“  A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.” –Steve Martin

For months now the sun has been traveling further and further away from the North pole as the earth does its orbital Fall dance. Since the Summer Solstice minutes and then hours of day light have been falling away, the days shrinking into night. On this 21st day of December at 11:48 P.M. EST tonight. the Winter Solstice will mark the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. This is the moment when the North Pole is tilted furthest from the sun during the Earth’s annual orbit. Tonight will be 2015’s longest night. 

The Winter Solstice marks the beginning of a new winter — a time of cold, heating bills, snow, ice, plowing and shoveling. For some people winter is a time for skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, and snowmobiling. These people actually have fun! For others like myself, the winter solstice is far more than the longest night of the year and the start of winter. It marks the beginning of the spiraling into light. 

Slowly, bit by bit through the coming weeks, the earth will tilt back towards the warmth of light and the promise of Spring. The days will grow longer. That is what I live for during the shrinking dark days of November and December. The Winter Solstice is my heart’s holiday. The days shrinking into darkness will end. Slowly — minute by minute, hour by hour, the light will lengthen — my spirit’s yearning for the light, patient reward.

It has been a tough year and the last few weeks have been especially so. Three of the people I love most are dealing with cancer — my eldest, the SO, and my youngest sister. That news came down like hammer blows two short weeks ago. I have had practice in dealing with this kind of thing, but it doesn’t get easier with familiarity. 

I’m holding to the light, leaning into the the promise of light and life for those I love. For all of us. Tonight I’ll light white candles and listen to the annual Paul Winter Consort’s Winter Solstice Concert. It will be a time of peace, wonder, grief, and thankfulness for the interconnected beauty of all things. 

Tonight one of my favorite Paul Winter compositions — Wolf Eyes — will sound through this darkest of nights.  Winter’s saxophone and wolf song will combine to express what words can not.

This Winter Solstice, yearning and thankfulness, grief and love, will mix and mingle, leaning into the promise of light. Gentleness will be remembered and allowed. So will hope.

May our new season’s days be filled with tenderness, light and love for you and yours. A Blessed Solstice to you all.