Illumination of Earth by Sun at the southern solstice.

It’s the longest night and shortest day of the year for my half of the world. This season’s Solstice (Winter in the Northern hemisphere, Summer in the Southern), occurred at 12:04pm UTC on December 21, 2008. That was 7:04 AM Eastern Time, my time zone, about six hours ago.

The name is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun stands still in declination; that is, its apparent movement north or south comes to a standstill.
– Solstice, Wikipedia

It feels like winter. It’s cold outside, icy and frozen over the layer of snow we got on Friday. We will get a deep freeze tonight.

Later this week, I will see what’s left of my family of origin for the first time since we flew back from North Carolina a little more than two weeks ago. It feels like it’s been much longer than that. It will be a bittersweet reunion. We are incomplete for the first time, and for all the seasons to come.

The days start getting longer again, earlier sunrise, later dusk. It feels like more than a metaphor this year.

Lots of “it feels”, which really means, “I’m feeling.” Sometimes that’s the work to be done. To stand still. And simply feel.

If, like me, you can’t read music cold, this page has a little MIDI file which bangs out the tune so you can follow the score.

Related Posts

2007 December (Winter) Solstice

Links

Solstice (Wikipedia)