Category: Winter
When your Identity Shifts
It reminded me of just how natural it is to let your identity shift. When it’s time, it’s time. The past few years here on Earth have felt like a training ground in letting the contours of who you were get a bit soft at the edges, blurred like the bower of a tree…
The Feminine Mysteries of Winter
I walked up the fog-laden path. I could hear sheep grazing nearby, but couldn’t see them through the thick wool of the clouds. I knew I was getting close because the air itself seemed to still. Then, out of the mists, arose the mound, an outcropping of stone associated with the most ancient Goddess of…
Finding Light in Dark Times
In the thick of winter it’s easy to forget that the light is actually growing each day. A week from now we’ll have an hour more sunlight than last week— and in just over a month the days will officially be longer than the nights. Though the sun may be gaining strength, early February…
The End Before the Beginning
Marked by the longest nights of the year, the solstice season has always been defined by a profound pause. In Latin, the word “Solstice” translates as “sun stays still.” If you watch the sunrise on the days around the Solstice, it appears as if the sun is halted in one place on the horizon….
Small Celebrations Matter
Last week we had our first snow of the year. A dazzling down that blanketed the land in white, it felt like a hug from the sky. After an unusually quiet Thanksgiving— and the news that Christmas would be similarly spent— the coziness of the snow felt like a gift. With the roads impassable…
The Earth is your Valentine
In English we only really have one word for love. In Ancient Greek, however, there was a whole vocabulary to describe the wondrous variety of love that we can experience on this planet. There was philia for friendship love, stroge for the love of one’s kin and, of course, the infamous eros, that burning…
Why I Believe
Since time immemorial this season has asked us to believe. As the days whittle down to their shortest points in the Northern hemisphere, belief is the fuel that burns the brightest, keeping the heart alight while we wait for the return of the light. The Winter Solstice was the most important yearly earth event…
Your Christmas Tree Is Medicine
When I was a kid, every year my family and I would go to a local farm to cut down our Christmas tree. It was always one of the most exciting days of the year. Living in Eastern Pennsylvania, by December it was truly cold in our neck of the woods. Bundled in woolens…