Yule like this, we bet!

In our neck of the woods, the shortest day is less than a week away. Our Winter Solstice will occur at 10:19 pm CST on Saturday, December 21. Today, after resisting its purchase four or five times, we decided to honor the Solstice and bought a copy of Susan Cooper and Carson Ellis's The Shortest Day. It's nominally a children's book. At this time of year, each of us should honor our inner child as well as our outer children. The book mentions a web site and an organization that performs the poem on which the book is based. The organization is The Revels. It's based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, our old stomping grounds. It's almost like home for the holidays time.

Also today, a Christmas present arrived early(?). We've been enjoying blue skies and sunshine since late morning. Our mood is improved about 317%. Shorter days leading up to and away from Winter Solstice can be, and often are, hard to take. Lack of sunshine has been too often compounded by cloudy days. Joni Mitchell warned us about it in her song Big Yellow Taxi:

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone 

We have dearly missed the sun this month. In fact, to complement our heartiest endorsement of The Shortest Day, and in anticipation of days getting longer, brighter and full of peace next year, we'll share the lyrics to one of our favorite John Denver songs.

sunshine can be magical

Photo by J. Harrington

Sunshine on My Shoulders

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy, sunshine in my eyes can make me cry.
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely, sunshine almost always makes me high.
If I had a day that I could give you, I’d give to you the day just like today.
If I had a song that I could sing for you, I’d sing a song to make you feel this way.

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy, sunshine in my eyes can make me cry.
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely, sunshine almost always makes me high.
If I had a tale that I could tell you, I’d tell a tale sure to make you smile.
If I had a wish that I could wish for you, I’d make a wish for sunshine for all the while.

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy, sunshine in my eyes can make me cry.
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely, sunshine almost always makes me high.
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy, sunshine in my eyes can make me cry.
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely, sunshine almost always makes me high.
Sunshine almost all the time makes me high.  Sunshine almost always…

(written by John Denver)

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