Winter Solstice, Brigitte Lopez
A homeless man dies in the gutter.
A tree cracks in the cold:
A shocking sound.At the winter solstice, the day is shortest of all and night is longest. It can also be the time of bitter cold. The wind blows with a frigid ferocity, cutting all before it. Snow and ice became deadly. Those who are homeless die of exposure. Even the mightiest of trees can split from the drop in temperature.
The sound of a tree snapping is a sudden slap.
The horrors, the tragedies that this nadir brings! Winter tortures the world with icy whips, and those who are weak are ground beneath its glacial heels. Sometimes, we dare not even lament those who die in the onslaught of winter, in fear that the tears will freeze upon our faces. But we see, and hear. Huddling closer to the fire, we vow to survive.
No matter how affected we are by misfortune, we must remember that this is the lowest turn of the wheel. Things cannot forever go downward. There are limits to everything — even the cold, and the darkness, and the wind, and the dying.
They call this the first day of winter, but actually it is the beginning of winter’s death. From this day on, we can look forward to warming and brightening.
“In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer” — Albert Camus
“Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure in the
landscape – the loneliness of it – the dead feeling of winter.
Something waits beneath it – the whole story doesn’t show.
– Andrew Wyeth
Of winter’s lifeless world each tree
Now seems a perfect part;
Yet each one holds summer’s secret
Deep down within its heart.
— Charles G. Stater
I trimmed back several of my plants yesterday just trying to get a bit more sun in the yard. I wasn’t really thinking of Solstice, and yet, I suppose I was. My son lit a fire in our fireplace last night – he wasn’t really thinking of Solstice either. And yet, he was. My neighbor and her son brought us cookies yesterday, playing out a Solstice tradition thousands of years old. But, thinking they were just bringing us cookies for Christmas, of course. I wonder if the ancients started their winter rituals as a way of seeking just to have that little bit more sunshine in their lives at a dark time of year, a bit more friendship and sharing of the last of summer’s wealth at the start of a difficult winter period.
“One kind word can warm three winter months.”
— Japanese Proverb
May your Solstice find you warm and happy. Be kind and loving to someone you don’t know today. Oh heck, that’s good advice for every day.
2 Responses
Of course it’s good advice for every day. But, you’re right to suggest it at this juncture; this deepest part of the dark. Thank you, as always, for a lovely post.
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