Winter Solstice 2017

In the Northern Hemisphere, on December 21, 2017 at 11:28 EST, Winter arrives. The Earth's axis is angled away from the sun which causes the northern hemisphere to receive the shortest duration of sunlight.  This means that we have arrived at the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Historically, various cultures celebrate this date as both a time of reflection, and a time of renewal and hope for the days to come.  Here at Merry Mount we gather with a group of friends known as "The Porch Crew" to celebrate the Solstice with food, drink, poetry reading, and much merriment.

Chosen spirits, they're called the Porch Crew,
Bring liquor, wine, and a corkscrew.
Each year they do meet
To drink and to eat
Their spirits are high, I assure you.

CPW

In addition to the merriment and revelry that accompanies the celebration, we also stop for moments of reflection.

The Solstice is a time of quietude, of firelight, and dreaming, when seeds germinate in the cold earth, and the cold notes of church bells mingle with the chimes of icicles. Rivers are stilled and the land lies waiting beneath a coverlet of snow. We watch the cold sunlight and the bright stars, maybe go for walks in the quiet land. . . . All around us the season seems to reach a standstill — a point of repose.

-       John Matthews

There is a tendency to want to hurry from autumn to spring, to avoid the long dark days that winter brings. Many people do not like constant days bereft of light and months filled with colder temperatures. They struggle with the bleakness of land and the emptiness of trees. Their eyes and hearts seek color. Their spirits tire of tasting the endless gray skies. There is great rejoicing in the thought that light and warmth will soon be filling more and more of each new day.

from The Circle of Life by Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr

Winter Solstice

Stop and Observe.

Discover the moments

between Winter and Summer.

Embrace the perpetual change.

The distance between

two points in time

is always

Now.

CPW

To Know the Dark

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.

To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,

and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,

and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

By Wendell Berry

May we find hope in the lights we have kindled on this sacred night,

hope in one another and in all who form the web-work of peace and justice that spans the world.

from A Prayer for Winter Solstice by Edward Hays

CPW