Bare Mtn Farm

Quotable Sunday 12/22/2013


Winter Solstice

You know when you are sledding down a hill, riding a bike or skiing down a slope; isn't amazing how fast you get to the bottom.  But when you head back up to the top of the hill, it seems so very slow and more difficult than the joy ride down.  The seasons are like that too.  It seems that we get to the shortest day of the year, Winter Solstice, in record time but it is a long, slow time to get to the longest day of the year in June. Maybe it is because of the time of year and the weather.  Here in the Willamette valley, many of the days in winter and early spring are gray, foggy and somewhat gloomy. Time seems to pass so very slowly as we wait for the first wonderful day of spring. Maybe, it is how little we see the sun or how cool and damp it feels.

Nature really doesn't care about this, it just goes about the business of rebirth.  It may not seem like there is anything going on out there in nature but there is.  Seeds, sprouts, shoots and  buds are all watching for the light, the signal, that special moment that tells them to grow.  It is happening out there all around us, no matter the weather.  So today we say  " Happy First Day of Spring!" Maybe not technically but definitely on the road to spring.  

 

The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper

So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!