By: Blonde Two
Each winter, as the days heave themselves over the dark hump of the winter solstice and back towards summer, I find myself more relieved. I don’t know when it happened but my years are no longer delineated by man-made punctuations, New Year is just the start of another month, September no longer the beginning of a new working year and as for April, well I have only recently discovered April and its taxation implications. The winter and summer solstices, however, have taken root in my biological and mental calendar and seem to have gained significant impact. I can only presume that this alignment with the earth’s natural patterns has some connection with spending so much time outside. My outside activities don’t differ much from summer to winter, I sleep outside all year, outdoor swim my way from one season to another and I have always walked more on Dartmoor in the dark months. Blonde One and I both find particular peace from sitting underneath the Dartmoor Christmas Tree and watching the earth turn towards night. It is during these times, around the winter solstice, that we put the world to rights and plan for the year ahead.
One old name for the winter solstice is Yule and modern pagans celebrate Yule as part of their wheel of the year. Yule has, of course, become entangled with modern Christmas and its surrounding mayhem but I can’t help feeling that my urge to watch sunrises, light candles and collect logs to burn at this time year have more deep-seated roots than a desire to light up the house up like the Coca-Cola lorry. I used to send my boys out on Christmas morning to find the Yule log, at the time I thought this was to give them something to do as they waited for dinner and presents, but these days I suspect there was some more primaeval mothering instinct at work.
So… as we like to say in the B2 family… it’s brightening up!!
Seasons blessings
