Porch Lanterns During Evening Snowfall Due to the overcast sky and the aura of orange light reflected from the five inches of snow that fell in five hours yesterday, we were unable to behold the lunar eclipse here in Indiana. Still, it was worth waiting up until 3am, just to know that somewhere out beyond my sight, the Eclipse, the Full Moon, and the Winter Solstice were coinciding, a rare cosmic occurrence in any millennium.
One of my sweet friends paid me the compliment of saying, "I think you are about the only person I know who would take notice that the Solstice and Full Moon coincided! That is great!" What a gratifying observation, since I am proud to be known for precisely such an awareness of the universe in all of its orderly, harmonious wholeness.
So many beautiful poems ring true on the Winter Solstice, but this has to be one of the best:
The Shortest Day
And 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, revelling.
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, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!
by Susan Cooper(b. 1935)
Award - winning British author of fiction and fantasy
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