Solstice

This is what I love about winter: Watching snow fall. Playing in the snow. Shoveling snow (yes! as long as it's not too heavy). Crisp, clear sunny days. Sunsets through the bare trees.
This is what I don't like about northern winters: Day after day of dull jet-wing grey skies. Shiver-me-timbers-cold. Driving on messy roads. Ice and mud tie for fourth place on the list.

Here on the mountain, we have already been experiencing winter-like conditions for well over a month. But winter doesn't officially begin until tomorrow, the day of the Winter Solstice.
The meaning of Solstice derives from the Latin Sol (sun) and sistere (stand still). It has to do with the position of the sun in relation to the observer. It happens in an instant, but always on the shortest day/longest night of the year. From tomorrow on, the days will be getting longer.

Symbolically, winter is a time of rest and contemplation. As I welcome winter tomorrow, I will be thinking about the rhythms of the natural world, and the never-ending cycle of birth, death and renewal. I will light a candle in the darkness. I will take a moment to be still, and quiet, and thankful for all of it.

"The trumpet of a prophecy,
Oh Wind, if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"