to the solstice ,welcome

From today on each day will get longer, slowly get longer, it will happen, and from today onward the winter will get snowier , the cold will deepen and the winds will howl in the chimney. The Crone will reign, and the earth will appear to be dying,  but it isn't.  Next springs newborns are already growing.  Seeds and nuts are already borrowed in ready for the spring warmth to crack their tough shells. so the tender seedlings safe inside can break out and grow.  The earth is dormant, not dying, but replenishing itself for the growing season. This is the season of gestation, and  not the easiest thing to see in our concrete covered world but  none the less it is there.

It is also the time for replenishing our own resources, and the gestation of ideas, and plans in the cold and still of winter's  landscape.  Without the distractions, taking the time to look for answers in the flames on the hearth, hoping to find them there.  As we have done.............

The solstice is  Dec 21st and 12:11 EST

'The Shortest Day' by Susan Cooper

So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,...
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!