Welcome, winter

Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, when darkness wins out over light. But not for long. It may seem a long time until mid-March when the vernal equinox marks equal hours of darkness and light, but it's just a few short months from now. This is the time for winter people like me.

Fortunately for us, Christmas is just around the corner. And if Christmas is about anything, it's about the coming of Christ, the light of the world. The way it steals into the heart during these long and dark days is a joy for me. Out of darkness comes light, symbolized by the star of Bethlehem, which, by the way, was an actual, astronomical event. Scholars now believe that the magi were Zoroastrians in what is now Iran, and they set out to discover what the brilliant star in the East was and what it signified.


Whether Christian or Pagan, Jew or Muslim, agnostic or atheist, the solstice has long held great significance for people who have inhabited this planet. Stonehenge was built as a sort of temple to the two solstices, one signifying life and birth and the other the transition to death and whatever comes after this life.


I love winter -- the respite from heat and bugs and the relentless hop-scotching from one air-conditioned spot to another. Winter is a good time to rest and regroup, to reflect and to heal, to read and to burrow in. It has a beauty all its own where I live, the spare landscape revealing the skeleton of old trees, the flight of birds, and the wildlife that adapts to the changes in temperature.


Today in West Virginia, it feels more like spring than winter. But that, too, is a passing illusion. The animals know winter is about to bear down, people have their firewood stacked outside the door, and we know that we should go out to feel the warmth of the sun maybe one more time before it slips below the southern horizon, making way for the darkness to move in.

Wherever you are, celebrate the solstice as native peoples everywhere do. Rejoice!