What a beautiful and fascinating time, the winter season.
The time of the Solstice,
Christmas,
Hanukkah
and many other celebrations designed to bring light to these,
the darkest days of the year.
As I, too, settle in for the long winter’s nap,
I began thinking about the urge to brighten the dark,
and just before I lit a candle against the darkness,
I began to see something new in our northern winter,
something beautiful hidden in the dark.
I saw this:
A time of darkness.
A time of calm beauty.
A time of possibility.
A time in which dreams,
usually diminished and faded by light,
seemed more vivid,
more visible against the backdrop of the dark.
This is the earth’s great and beautiful dance and twirl around the sun,
caught in its shyest moment as it tilts bashfully away from the brightness.
It’s inevitable, this time.
It’s a time of extremes;
The shortest day
the longest night.
And it’s in this moment,
as the earth tips gently away from the sun
that we have the opportunity to see wisdom and beauty within the shadows of the year.
Have you ever noticed that during the brightest days of summer,
to see better,
you shield your eyes from the sun or turn your back?
Sometimes the beauty and brightness of light can hide and blind us to details and insights too shy to fight the light, but no less beautiful.
The earth understands, as this is a time when the earth says:
“Here, let me help. Let me take those black spots that form in your vision when you look too long into the sun,
and turn you the other way,
giving you a chance to see,
not what is illuminated,
but what is shy and waiting to be discovered.”
What a beautiful time of the year,
this winter solstice season,
to look into the dark,
to hold off the light,
for just a moment,
and to see what the earth wants us to see on the other side of the light.
May this season bring for you all the gifts of seeing,
of wisdom,
of insight
and of possibility that has eluded you thus far this glorious and wacky year.
With all my heart I wish you the happiest
and merriest
and loveliest
of all this season has to offer.
Savor its ending,
celebrate its close,
confident in the knowing
that with every new ending
comes a new beginning’s dawn.
See you in the dawn of the New Year!
Photo courtesy of Sarchi on Flickr under the CC License
