Winter Solstice | Middle Moment

I've been hearing on the radio how today is the first day of winter but that just goes to show how completely out of phase we are with nature's cycles. With the winter solstice marking the "shortest day / longest night" in the northern hemisphere, by any commonsense reckoning today must be regarded as the middle of winter (just as the summer solstice is rightly celebrated as Mid-Summer throughout northern Europe). This year, the return of the light is especially significant for me since I feel like the darkest days of this lymphoma episode are behind me. I got a great night of sleep last night (right through the 1:04 CST solstice moment) and awoke with the knowledge that winter -- and my treatment -- are half over. I hope to start my three weeks of radiation next week and have it completed by mid-January.

How we ever got so directly out of phase with earth's cycles is a long and fascinating story that I won't detail here -- the short version of this tale rests in the overt hostility of the catholic church to pagan, earth centered rituals prevalent in Europe prior to christian expansion. You can take it from there. Anyway, once we again recognize the fundamental cosmological reality of earth's seasonal cycles, we must also recognize that even in northern Minnesota spring begins in the first week of February (as marked by Ground Hog Day, Candelmas, St. Brighid's Day, Feast Day of Brighid, Lupercalia, Tu B'Schvat, Imbolc/Oimelc, Chinese New Year -- in reverse order of historical precedence)! Although this might seem unduly optmistic, I can assure you that if you look (and listen and smell and feel and taste) for signs of spring in the first week of February you won't be disappointed. Getting back in phase with the reality of nature's cycles provides the added advantage of alerting us to those six brilliant first weeks of summer beginning in early May (as far as I am concerned, summer starts when the boat floats and winter begins when the boat comes back out after whitefish netting in early November!). Have a wondrous winter solstice! /dps