Winter Solstice sunset at White Pond 2013
Let your mind wander back a few hundred years. The winter cold is numbing and the sky is overcast. The fields are frozen; the stored harvest in the root cellar must last until the Spring. The days are short and travel is difficult; few care to venture from the fire of the hearth. People spend their silent nights and quiet days reflecting on the year past and wondering what the new year will bring. Thoughts of winter survival are answered with a bold display of the symbols of life- food fire and festival.
Today, it is so easy to get caught up in a holidaze filled with shopping, parties and family obligations. Let us remember that the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, is a time to affirm life, to surrender to the quietness, to rest in the dark. This still and sacred moment of the year observed by so many through the centuries and in all spiritual traditions serves to connect us with our source and with each other.
May you find balance in your life as the sun stops for a moment as it reaches the lowest point in our northern sky and then begins its ascent once again.
Let your mind wander back a few hundred years. The winter cold is numbing and the sky is overcast. The fields are frozen; the stored harvest in the root cellar must last until the Spring. The days are short and travel is difficult; few care to venture from the fire of the hearth. People spend their silent nights and quiet days reflecting on the year past and wondering what the new year will bring. Thoughts of winter survival are answered with a bold display of the symbols of life- food fire and festival.
Today, it is so easy to get caught up in a holidaze filled with shopping, parties and family obligations. Let us remember that the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, is a time to affirm life, to surrender to the quietness, to rest in the dark. This still and sacred moment of the year observed by so many through the centuries and in all spiritual traditions serves to connect us with our source and with each other.
May you find balance in your life as the sun stops for a moment as it reaches the lowest point in our northern sky and then begins its ascent once again.