Solstice Salutations
celebrating the shortest days and longest nights
Dear Ones,
Happy Solstice week. Though it’s not technically the shortest day of the year, today is only 30 seconds longer than it will be on December 21st. Our daylight here in Northwest Washington dips to 8 hours and 29 minutes on December 15th, and doesn’t increase to 8 hours and 30 minutes until December 26th. Coupled with lots of clouds and rain this year, I’ve been mostly hibernating, drinking Harney & Sons Queen Catherine tea all day, wearing my L.L. Bean wicked good clogs and extra-long hoodie nonstop.
I’ve been prepping bulletins for special church services, knitting hats for my husband, listening to audiobooks and Christmas music, and riffling through the thousands of photos I’ve nature and landscape photos I’ve taken this year.
Here is my annual photo highlights slideshow. It’s just over 10 minutes with 150+ images in chronological order from January 1st through the full moon on the morning of December 15th. I didn’t include my month stay in New York City, since that’d be another 100 photos at least! For full effect, the images are best viewed on a device larger than a phone. So pour some tea, or a festive seasonal beverage, and enjoy the year through my viewfinder.
I’ll leave you with this poem, written in 1974, which is 50 years ago, not just the few years it seemed when I first read the date. The Shortest Day was published as an illustrated children’s book in 2020, and on its way to becoming a holiday classic.
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!