Darkness at Solstice

Finding Christmas, leaving the year

Winter solstice is the end of a season of life and for many of us the memory of the year brings sadness and loss. When the leaves have fallen and your bare trees hold the stars at night, find an evergreen. Cut a few branches that smell of sap and set them by the hearth.

Light a bright fire to hold the longest night at bay. This will remind you that after billions of years, since before anyone imagined keeping time, our planet has spun like a top around our sun. On December 20 it begins again its endless tilt toward heat and light and growth. Every single day after is two or three minutes longer than the day before. You might ask, who pulls the string to keep this top turning?

What is Christmas, Hanukah and Kwanza but a bright passage to the new year? Make a rich altar over that fire. If you have them, set out the tiny crèche figures who promise that birth follows death. Lay greens and berries and sparkly garlands. Light candles to assuage that dread of darkness the way our ancestors lit torches around the bodies of their dead. The flames that guide the soul into the hereafter also illuminate the faces of those of us who remain behind.

Love what you have. And watch for the narcissus.