The winter solstice takes place on 21 December in the Northern Hemisphere. A time which has both mythological and meteorological significance, this is the shortest day of the year, but it is also the point at which the sun begins to return to us once more, heralding longer and warmer days to come. Following recent announcements that families cannot gather for Christmas in England, I dedicate this blessing to all of us who cannot be with the ones we love, and who love us, this Christmas.
On Winter solstice
We live through the longest night of the year
The cold hours warmed by
The promise
Of bright spring mornings & languid summer evenings to come
May this solstice invite us to look back, just for a moment
And see the year receding behind us
And say with honesty, with love:
I carried myself through the long winter. And I am proud of that.
May this long night reminds us that even when we feel furthest away from Source
We are never beyond the reach
Of its enlivening light
We are never wholly abandoned
May this Midwinter be a talisman, a prayer, inviting the dark days of 2020 to come to an end
To invite life to return to souls turned pallid by long-suffering, by loneliness, by loss
Dear one,
This Winter solstice, may you cultivate one last spark of hope
May you take it in your palm, small and fragile and liable to fade
And sew it deep into the dark earth
Trusting
That she will nurture it for you
As she does the snowdrop, the crocus and the daffodil
May this long, cold night
Be a turning point for us all
As it is for mother earth
And may it incubate unimaginably rich things for you in the year to come
A Springtime of vibrant colour returning to the glades of all our hearts
Soon, and very soon.
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