We have arrived at the Winter Solstice, the tipping point where we in the N. Hemisphere mark the point where the earth will begin to rotate back to the sun’s full exposure. The Winter Solstice marks the longest night and the shortest day of the year. While our modern calendar denotes it as the first day of winter, there are those of us from the time of the ancients that mark it as a time of hope and new beginnings as the light returns each day, bit by bit.
Winter Solstice On this longest night we hover on the brink of change plants shudder in their sleep animals dream as do we for the brightening of the coming days
and a poem from my friend and poet Bethany Lee
Assembling at Solstice Every year your soul remembers your first time here on the dark side of the sun How you wondered beyond language at this descent into night Your mothers sang you the songs of joy dipped tapers lit wicks against despair Your fathers polished harnesses by firelight, quietly trusting in reaping’s return These are the days for polishing for trusting and for singing for gathering the wisdom of those who make their lives by hand These are the days for stories by candle of lamps that stayed burning of stars in the sky of new life coming always into the unexpected places like snowbanks and stables and endings and springtime Alone our souls remember the darkness Together we summon and kindle the light Bethany Lee Happy solstice everyone!
Illustration and Winter Solstice poem by the author.
Check out my other blog on sustainability at onesweetearth.blog
By Alanna Pass 