You may want to pause on December 21 to honor the winter solstice, the return of the light and your connection to nature.
The days are getting shorter and the nights longer as we approach the winter solstice. At our northern latitude, the sun now sets before 4:30 pm. We understand why many holiday traditions involve lights to push back the darkness. We hope your holiday season is filled with light and joy, comfort and cheer.
At In Harmony, we work to connect our practices and our clients’ landscapes with the rhythms of Mother Nature. Thus we like to honor the winter solstice. The solstice celebrates our connection with the natural world, with darkness and light.
The winter solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year. The 2022 winter solstice is Wednesday, December 21. On that evening you may want to pause to appreciate the darkness. This is the moment when the sun pauses too. It stops its apparent southward path and moves back toward the north.
While the winter solstice marks the shortest, darkest day, it also marks the rebirth of the sun, when days begin to grow longer. Perhaps the return of the light will also mark the beginning of a good year ahead.
To honor the solstice, you could find a place outside away from the bright lights. Or you could darken your home and light candles. You could make a fire in your fireplace or fire pit.
Perhaps you will want to take a moment to think about your connection to the sun and its eternal motion, and your relationship with the planet. You could consider what you are grateful for, what you would like to release into the darkness, and what you would like to bring forward into the light. Some people use the solstice to set goals and intentions for the year ahead.
Here is an excerpt from a poem by Margaret Atwood.
“…This is the solstice, the still point
of the sun, its cusp and midnight,
the year’s threshold
and unlocking, where the past
lets go of and becomes the future;
the place of caught breath, the door
of a vanished house left ajar…”
― Eating Fire: Selected Poetry 1965-1995
