Isn’t it comforting to think that we are approaching a moment of renewal in this wild world we are living in?
Dec. 21, 2020 marks this year’s Winter’s Solstice.
Scientifically, Winter Solstice is the moment when the earth’s axis has its maximum tilt away from the sun. Winter Solstice is also a powerful symbol of changing seasons, new beginnings, and Earth’s rebirth. Dec. 21 will be the shortest day of this most strange year, and each passing day after will be a little bit longer, and a little bit brighter as we head towards Spring.
Maybe, just maybe, we all will feel a bit brighter. I ask you to join me in focusing on gratitude, that we’ve been lucky enough to make it to another changing of seasons when so many of our fellow people haven’t this year. I pray for a rebirth of the Earth and for hope to be renewed in all of us.
The word solstice means “to stand still.”
Collectively, we are being asked to stand still as a society right now. Slow down. Stay home. Be with your closest loved ones. Focus on what’s truly important as winter settles in. The hustle and bustle that is usually the holiday season for a lot of us, may not be this year. In fact, it may feel that the symbols of the solstice stretch far beyond that one day, and in some ways, have become a way of life for a while. I know we are all weary. But, what if we embrace this quiet time? Let’s make it less about restrictions and lock downs and more about a time of renewal, slowing down, and reflection.
I will be having a baby around the time of the Winter Solstice. I’m looking forward to slowing down and being with my immediate family when he arrives. When I first found out I pregnant, I struggled with bringing a baby into the world at this time of year. Not only because of the pandemic, but, much less importantly, it bothered me that it was so close to Christmas. I thought… what a terrible time for a birthday.
Thinking of it now, it’s silly. Nothing like a global pandemic to put into perspective what’s truly important. Just like everything else this year, I’ve worked to reframe it in my mind. To think of it as a beautiful, quiet, cozy time, to snuggle a brand new babe. I’ll be reborn as a mother, to a new life, on the same cycle that for thousands of years it’s been thought in many countries that the Earth itself is reborn and renewed. How beautiful.
How lucky we are to be gaining a member of our family when so many have lost one. While at the beginning of my pregnancy the thought of a baby brought on panic, uncertainty, and worry. I now feel that he is coming to bring peace. A wholeness to our family I didn’t know we needed. And he’s coming at Winter Solstice. A wise little soul already, I just know it.
I have a moment in my mind that I look forward to with my new baby. I’m holding him, snuggled into big fuzzy blankets, with the Christmas tree making the room glow. It’s snowing and peaceful outside. It’s that deafening kind of quiet and stillness that only a blanket of snow brings. I’m able, if only for a moment, to just be still. Who knows, maybe that moment will come on Winter Solstice for me this year.
