Hello and Happy Winter Solstice!
As we move into the festive season, I hope all is well.
Here we are, on the shortest day and the longest night. Solstice fell today, 22 December at 3.27am GMT. The sun is at its lowest in the sky, at its most southerly point.
The word ‘solstice’ comes from the Latin ‘solstitium’ – Sun Stands Still.
Before the new Gregorian calendar, in the old Julian calendar (used by the Roman Empire) the winter solstice occurred around 25 December. Our new calendar has ‘squared’ up all the dates to allow for planning really far ahead. In doing so, we lost the pattern of a calendar based on the cycle of the sun’s apparent motion through the fixed stars. We now have a calendar which can feel out of tune with the cycle of seasons, equinoxes, solstices and the earth turning, but which does allow for forward planning!
To me, the festive time feels most alive now, at winter solstice. We have such a short day duration, in contrast to the long day at summer solstice. Today has approximately eight and three quarter hours less daylight than at summer solstice. That’s a lot of lovely dark.
Please forgive a slight sense of déjà vu, there are a sequence of blogs here on this website on the theme of ‘still’ . The still theme started with unplugging-and-standing-still and ended with this one: summer-solstice-the-sun-standing-still/. I cited Keats, Helen MacDonald and Thich Nacht Han. All have written about being ‘still’ in some way. I also wrote about kestrels hovering still against the wind.
The wonderful poet Wendell Berry, like Keats, has written about still water. In the poem ‘The Peace of Wild Things’ found in his book of the same title, Berry writes: ‘I come into the presence of still water./ And I feel above me the day-blind stars/ waiting with their light. For a time/ I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.’
As the sun is standing still today, I invite you to consider what will allow you to rest in the grace of the world in the next few days? How might you be still?
Reflecting on 2023. I am sending you a heartfelt thank you. Thank you if you have worked with me this year, and thank you if you have been reading this blog here, or on Substack. I’ve loved sharing practice, and particularly my love of the outside world, of mindfulness practice, of being human, of living beings that are more than us. I deeply appreciate you being on this journey with me.
So now, I am ready to unplug for a while. I hope you can unplug (whatever that means to you) for a little while too.
Wishing you a peaceful and restorative festive season with maybe a few merry berries in it too.
If you’d like to join me for Open Practice, it resumes on Monday 8 January 2024 at 6.30pm on Zoom. Please do contact me on karen[at]outsidethought[dot]co[dot]uk for further details. I’ve extended the time to 40 minutes and we’ll meet 6.30 – 7.10 pm. Pay what you can, no questions asked, suggested donation £5. More details on my website.
with love
Karen