Winter Solstice officially occurred at 5.30am on 22 December 2011. At Winter Solstice the sun is closer to horizon than any other time of the year. The shortest day of the year, with just eight hours and twenty three minutes of sunlight, in the northern hemisphere Winter Solstice is the date marks the first day of winter, and the slow transition back to longer days. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Christmas
The Season of Good Cheer
The seasons go by so quickly. It’s winter and four gale force wind storms took out the power lines this month. We even had snow. Aside from being wet, which is guaranteed, who knows what the rest of the winter months will hold? Continue reading
One Red Candle and Seasonal Favorites
This Winter Solstice on the eve of December 21, please consider joining me. Go outside and settle into the night. Listen. Think about the night as if it were an island.
Have in mind what is important to you — what you want to release from your life and what you want to welcome into your life in the coming year.
Breathe each thing you want gone, one at a time, into the palm of your hand, then blow them away into the winter sky.
Do the same with each desire you wish to enter your life. When you are finished, go inside and light a red candle.
Put it in a safe place to burn out completely. The candle is a symbolic guiding light to draw your desires to you.
Happy Holidays
Happy Holidays
Happy Holidays! Whichever ones apply:
Jewish, Christian, Pagan, secular!
Practicing people are not particular,
Perhaps because all people yearn for friends.
Year’s end’s a time of darkness, true, but when
Has darkness ever darkened one small light?
Our pleasures are like candles in the night,
Lighting lamps that burn beyond our ken.
In celebration there is more than joy:
Days of feasting bind our friendships fast,
A fat and full embrace of things that last,
Yet holy in what sense one might employ,
Savoring sweet songs that spirits buoy.
At our indoor Winter Solstice celebration year we have a “peace tree” or, if you prefer, a “wishes tree”. The tree is a potted evergreen that can be transplanted into the soil to grow naturally in February when the ground is saturated by rain. It’s decorated with only white lights, a golden dove on the top, and white wishes cards that boast a blue peace dove on one side and a golden ribbon affixed to one corner. The cards are 3 inches by 5 inches in size and the opposite side is blank for a special purpose.
As each person arrives they greet everyone, and then they sit down at a small table and contemplate the upcoming year, while they write a wish for their community and the world on their card. Once they have record their wish they hang their card on the tree with the blue dove facing outward so the wish remains unseen.
When the feasting, singing, dancing and clean up are done and we are prepared to leave. Each person goes to the tree and chooses a card randomly and holds it until the last person has their card in hand. We form a circle and each one of us then reads the wish recorded on the card out loud. Then we sing our final song and disperse with cards in hand to hang on our own trees at home. I’d like to share my wish with my readers so I’ve entered it below.
My wish is that people will love more, speak to each other honestly, hug without needing a reason, cry without feeling ashamed, laugh just because they can, be good just for goodness sake, help because they can, love life, laughter and happiness because each moment in this life is a gift.
Do you have a wish that you would like to share?
Do you have a seasonal tradition that you would like to share?
If so please feel free to do so when you comment.
