Solstice Reflections, Dec 21, 2015

I took a photo from the edge of my deck.  There had been a heavy fog and tree branches were encrusted in hoar frost and it was  still before sunrise, as it is for so many hours in the winter, and everything was in deep shadow.

The photo  reminds me that during times of deep shadow across the land, colour also vanishes and things become  very black and grey and blue.  In fact, a lone rose hip with its bright winter red seems to glow against its somber  neighbours.  Even the very muted tan colours of dried grasses or a few stubborn leaves clinging to tree branches have a prominence I would never notice at other times.  When I normally look out onto the winter landscapes around me my mind’s eye  adds colours that come from the memories of times when the sun was higher in the skies and the light was not filtered  for such a long distance through the atmosphere, when  colour and life  and warmth were everywhere around me.  I guess my mind  saved those colour memories just as we save food from the good times of the summer abundance, giving us something to feed on during the long winters.   The same with my colour memories of the land;  those memories nourish my soul during the dark  days of mid winter.

And then there is Solstice!  When  things  slowly start to get brighter and we move on to a time when we can create new memories of  the gifts of Father Sun, and once more store some of that profligate abundance within mind and pantry.  

Just as we  reach deep within to bring forward memories of colour and warmth and fill the woodbox with firewood  to stay alive, it is also from within that we  need to reach to bring forward the light to dispel the darkness of Spirit that  we experience.  We have been gifted during the summers of our lives enabling us to reach into that  treasure trove to bring forward the light and warmth and Spirit Food that  this world so badly needs.  I guess this is  why the early Christians  selected the winter solstice to remember and celebrate  the Incarnation of Emmanuel.

Happy Solstice,  a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year  full of all the good things our Creator, the Earth and our friends will bring to us.  Reach deep within your own Spirit and the Spirit of those who care about you, and find the memories of light and warmth to support you until those brighter days arrive.