Solstice
All day today, I kept reminding myself that this year's winter solstice was going to be at 9:30 tonight, California time, and that I should post something.
But then of course I forgot, and when the hour came round at last, I was in the midst of something else, so here I am posting about two and a half hours late.
I haven't been quite as much in need of longer days and more sun as usual, perhaps because the weather in these parts has been so nice the past few days that I'm embarrassed to describe it for fear of distressing y'all in colder climes.
But I'm kind of swamped and a bit short on sleep and a bit oversocialed, and today was kind of stressful, so I am very glad that it's time once again for the days to grow longer.
In keeping with my usual tradition, here are my favorite lines from Susan Cooper's poem “The Shortest Day”:
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
Thank you, Ms. Cooper, for that and for so much else. But right now, especially for that.
I was going to go on and add a couple other quotes, but I've been falling asleep at the keyboard for the past half-hour (and managed to make several egregious errors in the initial version of this post), so I think it's time for me to sleep.
As usual, I apologize to y'all SoHes (a term I just made up for Southern Hemispherians) for being glad at a time when your days are about to get shorter.