Today is the Winter Solstice. The longest night of the year, the day that marks the first night of winter, and the day that also marks the return of the light. It’s a moment steeped in magic.
As I shared several months ago, one of my morning rituals is to choose a Tarot card for the day (usually from Joanna Powell Colbert’s Gaian Tarot Deck) and today’s card is Temperance. To seek the balance, the middle way, to balance your own light and shadow. An appropriate theme for the day: the middle way. To find that space between my light and shadow.
To seek the light when it’s the darkest, longest night of the year.
My desk is a mass of books this evening: Home Comforts, the Gaian Tarot Book, Henri Nouwen’s Sabbatical Journey, my emerald journal just recently filled with words alongside the orange one just begun, and the olive green bullet journal. Oh, and my Kindle, too, containing a dozen books or more, some of which I read, some of which I am reading, like Mary Oliver’s Upstream….and some of which I hope to read.
I wish I could say I’ve done a lot of writing today, but mostly, I’ve thought. And prepared for the holiday.
I went to the grocery store, getting supplies for Christmas dinner and all the days leading up to it. Tonight, I made a big dinner of braised beef in tomatoes in my new Instant Pot and served them alongside all the orange veggies in the fridge: sweet potatoes, carrots, and butternut squash.John said it was good, but said it smelled like dirty socks. Hmmmm…maybe not the aroma I was going for?
And now….time to slumber, to dream, to find the magic there and sometimes answers in the voices of those who visit my dreams.
Happy Solstice.
