This entry is dedicated to my friend Kathryn, whom many of us have come to view as Queen of the Solstice:
"A year indoors is a journey along a paper calendar; a year in outer nature is the accomplishment of a tremendous ritual. To share in it, one must have a knowledge of the pilgrimmage of the sun, and something of that natural sense of him and feeling for him which made even the most primitive people mark the summer limits of his advance and the last December ebb of his decline. All these autumn weeks I have watched the great disk going south along the horizon of moorlands behind the marsh, now sinking behind this field, now behind this leafless tree, now behind this sedgy hillock dappleds with snow. We lose a great deal, I think, when we lose this sense and feeling for the sun. When all has been said, the adventure of the sun is the great natural drama by which we live, and not to have joy in it and awe of it, not to share in it, is to close a dull door on nature's sustaining and poetic spirit."
Henry Beston, The Outermost House: A year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod (1928)
Walked: 2 miles in the snowstorm.
4 comments:
I am relieved to know that the days will soon be longer bring the promise of spring. I like winter....but I find I am very lazy in the short days. No drive, just a slacker....I mean more of a slacker! I have much more energy with longer days.
I love the quote. I was just commenting to another person about how I've shifted my Christmas celebration from consumer matters to an acknowledgment of the solstice. I want to keep this quote in my heart and mind. Thank you. Thank you Kathryn, whoever you are, for inspiring such a beautiful entry.
What a wonderful passage from that book. I too have been watching the sun travel its well-worn path. The sunbeam that travels down my stairs is now at is highest point on the wall in the foyer which means it is time to make the turn. The days will get longer. The warmth will return. This will get me through the darkest, coldest part of the year as I watch that sunbeam travel back up the stairs and out the window to summer.
Kathryn :::bowing regally:::
beautiful. judi
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