As Solstice nears

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, Winter Solstice is three weeks from today. Druids celebrate it as Alban Arthan (The Light of Arthur). By December’s end, days will again be growing longer, although we in the North Country still will face several months of cold and snow.

If you visit this blog with any regularity, you’ve probably noted by now that I’m not much of a winter person. In my younger days I enjoyed ice skating, tried skiing, both downhill and cross-country, rode a snowmobile once, and even drove on ice a couple of times. I have also put a four-wheel-drive vehicle into a full skid twice on snow-covered roads. I do better with boats, shotguns and fly-fishing rods when temperatures are well above freezing. If the weather we’re enjoying this week continued until April, you’d not hear a peep of complaint from me, as long as the lack of snow didn’t cause the septic system to freeze up.

cardinals often look their best in winter

Photo by J. Harrington

Winter, for me, is a wonderful time to try playing with any Christmas toys Santa left, and reading poetry, and reorganizing and repairing gear for next spring, summer and autumn’s outdoor activities. It’s also prime time for reading poetry, tying flies, baking bread and recuperating from the aforementioned three seasons’ activities. This winter we’re also trying to organize and thin out our almost excessive book collection. That will depend on the amount of time we need to spend blowing and/or plowing snow, walking dogs, and other winter chores, all the time looking forward to the arrival of Spring Equinox.

Winter in all of Our Lives

There is a winter in all of our lives, 
a chill and darkness that makes us yearn 
for days that have gone 
or put our hope in days yet to be. 
Father God, you created seasons for a purpose. 
Spring is full of expectation 
buds breaking 
frosts abating and an awakening 
of creation before the first days of summer. 
Now the sun gives warmth 
and comfort to our lives 
reviving aching joints
bringing colour, new life
and crops to fruiting. 
Autumn gives nature space 
to lean back, relax and enjoy the fruits of its labour 
mellow colours in sky and landscape 
as the earth prepares to rest. 
Then winter, cold and bare as nature takes stock
rests, unwinds, sleeps until the time is right. 
An endless cycle
and yet a perfect model. 
We need a winter in our lives 
a time of rest, a time to stand still 
a time to reacquaint ourselves 
with the faith in which we live. 
It is only then that we can draw strength 
from the one in whom we are rooted
take time to grow and rise through the darkness 
into the warm glow of your springtime 
to blossom and flourish 
bring colour and vitality into this world
your garden.
Thank you Father 
for the seasons of our lives.

- Author Unknown

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