Light at the end of the tunnel
I sometimes wonder if I’m a reincarnated Druid.
While the world goes mad at this time of year in an orgy of consumerism and indulgence, I sit back and rejoice at the arrival of a different date.
I have my own little countdown which is slightly in advance of everyone else’s. While people are shouting “only four days to go”, I quietly say to myself “only one day to go”.
My day is the 21st.
I hate the Winter. Apart from the foul weather, I hate the darkness and the bare trees. I resent getting up in the dark, and then the day ending when it is still mid afternoon. I love the Spring especially, with the colouring in nature and the promises of warmer days ahead. I love the lengthening days and the miracle of growth all around me.
There is always a little twinge of sadness on June the 21st. It is the start of the long downhill slide to Winter.
But there is the corresponding delight at the arrival of the 21st of December. The days may not get noticeably longer for quite a while but there is the great consolation that they aren’t getting any shorter.
Tomorrow, I will celebrate.
I won’t be throwing any parties or getting drunk. I won’t be stuffing my face with food.
I will quietly greet the day, and my heart will be a little lighter.
And so will the days.
I like you in pensive mood Richard – I can sense the hippy in you!
by the way I still can’t get the RSS feed to work – I’ll set KP on it later!!!
I’ll be dancing naked at midnight!!
Let me know what KP has to say…
you rite reel gud. you shuld git a book lik that olden guy did to so you can git rich riting not him.
Should be past midnight by now. How did the dancing go?
Was out using the snow blower on the drive today cleaning up from last night’s snow storm. Shear pin broke on the right hand side auger right before I was done.
Tomorrow’s Sunday…
Another snow storm coming in…
Gonna leave a foot whether the day lasts longer or not…
##@%^&&$!!
Lovely post sir! For over 25 years, myself and a dear friend have vied to be the first to get the “Isn’t it great to see the lovely stretch in the evenings?” message to the other on the 22nd. He won last year with an IM message at 00.00:05 on the 22nd.
But it really is marvellous to see the tiny little shifts, isn’t it?
Thanks for a lovely reminder in the midst of the frenzy.
RhodesTer: Tank you very mush. Don’t let him heer you say dat do.
Kirk M: The dancing was fine, if a little chilly on the wobbly bits. At least we got our snow over with in Autumn!
Rowan: Thank you for your kind words, and welcome to my quiet corner of the Internet. I love this day, and it gets completely overlooked in the mayhem.
Happy Solstice Richard. A friend was lucky enough this year to be drawn for the Newgrange lottery although I prefer the vernal equinox at Loughcrew. Less crowded.
It is now the 21st. – and I hope you are enjoying your day!
Personally I’m getting more and more curious about monday and tuesday – the 22nd and 23rd Dec., because apparently on one or both of these dates our celestial Sun is going to flip its magnetic poles (again). Don’t know what this might mean for our wobbly old Earth – and of course hopefully nothing bad – but apparently the Sun does this every 15 years or so… Did anything dramatic happen to us in 1993..?
(I was reminded of this astronomical tidbit whilst recently re-reading Graham Hancock’s ‘Fingerprint of the Gods’).