Today, the winter solstice occurs in Colorado at 7:02 a.m. In English, the word solstice comes from the Latin word solstitium, meaning “sun standing still”. It suggests a brief pause as we experience the longest night of the year and welcome back the light. It is a time to prune all that you need to let go and make room for the sun to let new branches bloom. It is a time to grieve all that was lost and to be grateful for all the bounty received. It is a time to honor darkness and time to welcome light.
May you find space on this longest day of the year to sit quietly and reflect. I’ve included a passage from a poem below to accompany you in reflection.
As I’ve been doing my personal pruning, I realized that much of the struggle and the pain of the the year 2020 that I had labeled “emerge” at the end of 2019 has given way for a new word to come through me for 2021, “thrive.” May we all thrive as we move into the light.
The traveler has to knock
at every alien door to
come to his own,
and one has to wander through
all the outer worlds
to reach the innermost
shrine at the end.
– From the poem “Journey Home”
by Rabindranath Tagore