Winter Solstice

[Doreen Peri]

Shortest day of the year.
It is guaranteed light will increase
tomorrow and then tomorrow again
and more and more tomorrows
for an entire half of a year!

More light? Every day!
What could better?
Nothing!

There's nothing more optimistic
than this.

[sasha]

(Equal night/day is the Equinox - one in late March, again late Sept. Today is the solstice -
shortest day, longest night)

solstice
the time of Darkness,
when Sol has retreated so far south
I can no longer see him from my kitchen window...
but yes!
today he halts
and tomorrow
he takes his first timid steps back north
each day
he will rise a little earlier
set a little later
and each day
blessed Light
will linger a little longer
until June 22...
summer solstice
longest day, shortest night
when the cycle repeats...

[Doreen Peri]

Thx, Sasha... I corrected it.

[sasha]

I hope I didn't cause any offense.....

[sasha]

While Dec 25 is regarded as the birthday of Jesus, the truth is that no one knows for sure when he was born. In pagan times, the start of the sun's northward journey was so important, it was celebrated with days of abandon & debauchery, so much that the early Popes tried to suppress it. Good luck with quashing anything where alcohol is involved. So they co-opted it instead, declaring the solstice (within a day or two) as the time to honor the Christ. Thus was a Hallmark holiday born....

[Doreen Peri]

No you didn’t cause any offense. Haha! I had posted an article about the winter solstice on Facebook just moments before I wrote this and posted it here. On my post there, I wrote, “Today is the Winter Solstice — the shortest day of the year. Days will start to get longer now. Let’s celebrate!” Then I linked to this article.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/wint ... EF3_GIWa5o

Then... after that... I searched my archives on my computer and found all the poems of mine I had written in Word Jams here at studio8. Hundreds of them. We did a "Solstice Through New Years Word Jam" here every year for probably 10-15 years, can't remember how many years... MANY. It was a wonderful annual event. You can find all our community Word Jams on the site. I’ve saved them all. Just scroll down the home page and you’ll see them.

Anyway, I was reminiscing about how wonderful it was to host those jams (I introduced the concept and title “word jam” to Arcanum and we did them there, too). So many fond memories of writing and being inspired by others in these jams.

I was a prolific writer for a large part of my life. I couldn’t stop writing. I don’t know how many pieces I’ve written but certainly in the thousands. I sure do miss it.

By the time I came over there to studio8 to try to write something again (thinking maybe I should write something again, given the fact that I was missing writing so much, it felt like I had lost a limb!) I had read through dozens of my previous poems about both the solstice and equinox because we had community jams every year for many years during both the spring and autumn equinoxes, too. You can read them on the site.

It was 1am, I was tired, and a wee bit tipsy. I wasn’t thinking about anything but the optimism I so much need to have and the way the days getting longer can inspire optimism! I made an error writing equal daylight and dark because I was tired but you can’t NOT know that the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year after hosting and writing in Word Jams about it for a dozen years or more. Oh my, I’ve lost track of time.

This is a very difficult time of year for me. I miss my children who live a long long way away. I miss loved ones who have passed away. It’s 1pm now and I just woke up. I slept all day. Depression sucks. Merry Christmas.

No, of course you didn’t offend me by correcting my error. I was grateful!

I guess I’ll get up, get dressed, and go buy a potted pine to put in my family room to hang some lights on and pretend it’s Christmas. It’s nice that I have a room with family in its name. There’s a fireplace in that room. Maybe I’ll use it. It’s also adjacent to my painting studio. Maybe I’ll use that, too. One can only hope. The days are going to get brighter and lighter from here on out for the next six months. I need to be brighter and lighter, too.

Next maybe I’ll write some humor. I used to do that.

[Doreen Peri]

As for the celebration of Jesus' birthday, I'm not sure he was even born at all. It's a lovely myth, though. I miss writing and I miss loved ones and I also miss believing the myth. Something is mything in my life.

[Doreen Peri]

Here's a link to our Archived Word Jams – 2004-2016 .

14 years. OMG. Wow!

Want to do another one?

[theirishsea]

Like Anthony Hecht wrote as the title to one of his poems---More light! More Light! From now until mid-June the days will be getting longer----Hallelujah! And Doreen. Thanks I'm back in. Hope I stay in this time. Dan

[sasha]

This is a very difficult time of year for me. I miss my children who live a long long way away. I miss loved ones who have passed away....

To be honest, it is for me, too. I don't do Christmas anymore. Too many memories, too much long ago pain. 1988 - The Year From Hell. It took a long time, but I finally granted myself permission to blow it off. Liberation. Just another day - no better, no worse.

No, of course you didn’t offend me by correcting my error. I was grateful!

Well, that's a relief - I don't like the thought of seeming like a know-it-all. At least I didn't preface my remark with "Actually, ...."

.... It was 1am, I was tired, and a wee bit tipsy. I wasn’t thinking about anything but the optimism I so much need to have and the way the days getting longer can inspire optimism! I made an error...

I've made that kind of verbal mix-up, too. I seem to recall confusing "dorsal" and "pectoral" in a slightly risque essay in praise of zaftig women, to rather peculiar effect.....



I remember last year's Solstice-NewYear jam, & like the idea you floated in another thread of resurrecting it.

[mnaz]

I'm with you on this. Each year, on the dark solstice, finally a glimmer of at least the promise of more light...