Today is the shortest day of the year and the longest night. The Winter Solstice is cold, and the sun seems weak and distant to us in the Northern Hemisphere. Sometimes it feels like the darkness will just swallow you up.
Right now, we are tilted away from the sun, but this is the beginning of a new cycle. Over the coming 6 months the sun will grow stronger — strong enough to inspire massive growth in the natural world. That is why ancient skywatchers celebrated and felt hope on the Winter Solstice.
Each day going forward will be a little longer than the last. We are slowly building toward brighter days until we reach Summer Equinox, the longest day. Hold onto the promise of sunny days and infinite possibilities ahead.
There are lots of ways to celebrate. Here are a few ideas to mark this day:
🌲Take a nature walk. Collect evergreen boughs, ivy, mistletoe, and holly to decorate your home. English ivy is invasive here, and grows everywhere in my neighborhood. I saved a stand of trees in a public park this morning from the suffocating vines, and made this centerpiece on my kitchen table.
🍲 Have stone soup with friends. Share mulled wine or cider with spices. Light a candle or have a fire. Burrow into the blankets, watch the flickering firelight, give thanks, make wishes, and make peace.
🌞 Watch the sunset or the sunrise. I’ll be watching a livestream of sunrise over Stonehenge 7am GMT Thursday (2 am my time). Stonehenge was built in alignment with the sun on the solstices. The sun rises there for Winter Solstice on the 22nd. I don’t often wake up early enough to watch the sunrise, but sunrise in Greenwich Mean Time is easy to catch if you're a night owl in the east coast.
Happy solstice, friends. ⛄️
9 months ago