Conejo Post

To friends of the Conejo Post, I wish a Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah or Happy Holidays,  along with a Happy Solstice to all!

Why include the Winter Solstice?  Because it is something we all share together, whatever our religion or lack of it.  It is that day-and-night unit when the sky is dark for the longest length of time during the year. 

The process  of moving toward darkness begins, of course, the day after the Summer Solstice, or longest lighted 24 hours in the year, which occurs the end of June.  After that, the time of day light shortens slightly every day till we arrive at Winter Solstice, which is Monday, December 21 this year.

I know this is all quite basic for everyone, but I wanted to review it, because I find the solstice-equinox cycle quite poetic.  I have heard it  compared to our breathing. 

In that model, we release an out-breath when the days are lightest, from the Spring Equinox in March to the Autumn Equinox in September.  That is our time of more activity in the year, when we are more out in the world, doing and creating.  Then comes the time of more darkness, from September to March, and that is our in-breath.  We may find ourselves being quieter, more introspective, and gathering our forces for the coming sunshine times.

So, Happy Solstice to all on Monday!  I don’t have any songs to sing about it or a prescribed celebration, but I do plan to go outdoors on that day with attention to all of earth’s bounty around me.

Posted by Janna Orkney, and thanks to Monica Varah for wishing me a Happy Solstice, which started me thinking about it.