Winter Angel

On this Winter's Solstice, let us find a space to be thankful for the blessings we have been given, to request peace for the world, to love one another and to look with joy toward the celebration of Jesus' birth.

My Favorite Winter Words

The Shortest Day

by Susan Cooper

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.

Solstice

Solstice

The words rolllllll off my tongue. Isn't it a lovely word? I have threatened to change my name, legally, to...just...plain...SOLSTICE. Not Solstice Lesser. Not Amy Solstice. Just - Solstice.

(Ah, she's gone off the deep end, you say, quietly to yourself). No. I'm turning 42 in two days! I am entitled to dream, a day before one of the most lovely days of the year, of running barefoot through pine scented forests with no responsibility and worries and a singular beautiful name of 'Solstice'. Summer Solstice, the first official day of summer. The longest day of the year (and shortest night of the year). The day when the sun 'stands still'.

The word Solstice is composed from Latin. Sol for sun and sistere (to stand still). During the summer and winter solstices, the visible movement of the sun (north or south depending on your hemisphere) comes to a stop before reversing direction.

And, for those of you wondering about the scientific aspects of the summer solstice, it occurs at exactly the moment when the Earth's axis is tilted greatest towards the sun at degrees of 23° 26'.

The summer solstice was also traditionally represented by the sign of fertility, and June herself is a month that boasts of lush fertility and life. So, this is fitting.

I love the solstices. They are beautiful days that God has given us. One is long and bright and full of life and fruit and smells and activity...sleep few minutes dear children of the solstice, this is a time to revel and dance and make merry. Eat berries, cook outdoors, smell, laugh, run, feel the sun on your skin. Or, just languish in the shade in the heat of the afternoon. (-:

On the other hand, the dark and hibernation inspiring winter solstice is beautiful in its own inky black darkness and cold. It is pinpoint starlight nights that make us run for the shelter of home and hearth and help us turn inward to look at our souls and our homes and the quiet that rests within.Summer is outward and extroverted, winter is inward and introverted. They represent the yin and yang of ourselves. They represent our conservative and our liberal meshing. They represent a balance of the halves that make us whole.

Both days are gifts, and there are many artists who have spent lifetimes painting and communicating their views of the solstices, writing songs or choreographing dances. It is not out of our grasp and everyday reach to take a moment to appreciate the wonder and enchantment of a long bright June day. A day when time and the sun seem to 'stand still'.

Heading Down Into The Dark of Winter

Yesterday, I made yet another batch of soap in hopes of getting called for the Christmas Greens Market at the Botanical Gardens this week, and then I worked on 'our' little Thanksgiving meal. I made a small organic turkey with dressing, Amanda's favorite jello with cider replacing the water in the recipe, sweet potatoes, mashed Yukon gold potatoes from the garden, gravy, salad from the big family get together, the pumpkin pie made from the pie pumpkins we grew, and pomegranates to put on the salad. Tom, Amanda, Albert and I sat by candlelight in the dining room and ate quietly and enjoyed a thankful meal. We gave the cats little scraps and some whipped cream. Then, I took a very small blue willow tea plate, and filled it with one piece of stuffing, five pomegranate seeds, some sweet potato, and a teeny tiny piece of meat and gave it to Widget, my pet Starling, for Thanksgiving. He ate the sweet potato, some of the meat and all of the stuffing. I think the shiny plate fascinated him more than all the bits of food.

After the dishes, Albert, Amanda and I went out to the orchard to glean Jonathon apples and Golden Delicous apples off the trees. Tom ALWAYS picks up every single apple off the ground and picks every single apple on the trees. This year, it was beyond him as we had such a massive crop of apples and they flowed over into harvest. He left about 10 Jonathon trees and one or two goldens and all the apples under them. We went and picked 4 bushels and brought them back. Albert peeled the golden delicious and we are drying them by the woodstove.

This time of year is so full of possibilities. We learn to thank God for new days and fresh mornings and health. Although things change and people aren't always there when we need them or who we need them to be, at least we are given new days to live and work and think and appreciate what we have, what we have lost, or what we have to look forward to.

Heading into the dark of winter used to be my least favorite time of year, but in the last couple of years I have learned to face it as a journey into myself...a time of year when we are given the dark hours so we can be self-introspective. And now, it seems the Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year, passes much too quickly.

There is some Celtic harp and vocal music that seems to echo this time of year perfectly, it is by Aine Minogue http://www.minogue.com/index.php

Enjoy the darkness.