Winter Solstice

Holiday GreetingsHere is the view from our deck this morning. A bit of snow on branches and rhododendron leaves, fog swallowing the surrounding hillsides. As I look out my window now, the fog has moved in even thicker and everything has turned shades of gray. A perfect landscape for a Winter's Solstice eve. That last drawing inward before the earth marks it's turn again toward the sun, bringing back the light, a turning of the wheel of the year.

I've been thinking about that, the winter solstice and the sun making it's return, and the whole idea of expansion, a moving outward after a time of drawing in. (Just so you can follow along with the weird way my mind works, click on the links for your homework reading.) I remember a song we sang in elementary school choir for Christmas concerts, Do You Hear What I Hear?. You know the one, a sappy holiday tune but the concept fascinated me as a kid. It starts small and moves outward. The wind tells the lamb, the lamb tells the shepherd boy, the shepherd boy tells the king, and the king tells the people everywhere, 'pray for peace'. If only it were so simple. What if everyone, everywhere did stop what they were doing, for just one moment, and said a prayer for peace, perhaps all at the same moment? What might happen?