welcome winter

We were going to welcome winter this year with a candlelit solstice/advent spiral, it was even all set up and ready to go.  And then the first day of winter came along and decided to be, well, wintry.  30mph winds and flurries and such.  The cold and the flurries were no problem, but no way was the spiral itself going to hold it's own against the wind.  And candles?  I bet not.  So instead we tossed a bunch of seeds to the birds and squirrels and moved the greenery indoors, with a simple little wreath with a candle in the middle, representing the sun.

We shared a meal with friends and, before they parted, we all gathered around a small table adorned with the wreath and talked briefly about it being the first day of winter, the shortest day, the longest night, the day after which the sun begins to shine brighter and stronger and longer each day...... we took turns lighting our own candles from the center candle, signifying the light and strength that we can each take from the sun and the lengthening days, light and strength that will help us through the winter and fuel our reflective and quieter days ahead.  Of course it was the adults present, all two of us, who likely gave all of that much thought.  Though maybe the children did, too.  We (the grownups) set our intentions for the coming year and attempted to 'have a moment' amidst the excitement and chattering of four little ones.  Such lessons there are in parenting.  In practically every single moment, if you look.

Claire started singing a lovely song that she learned during her brief stint at Montessori school as the school prepared to sing for the U.N.'s International Day of Peace:

Light a candle for peace,

Light a candle for love,

Light a candle that shines,

All the way around the world.

Light a candle for me,

Light a candle for you,

That our wish for world peace,

Will one day come true

Sing Peace Around the World

Sing Peace Around the World

Sing Peace Around the World

Sing Peace Around the World

And I thought she would assume lighting candles would go with the birthday song...... such soul and depth there is behind those little eyes.  After our friends left and it was just the two of us, she asked to do it again.  And again.  And again.  I had to get a new 'sun' candle and by the time she had had enough, the candles we had been lighting were half the size they had been when we started.

The wind continued to howl all night long and by the time the wind chimes stopped plinking and things settled down I bet we'd had nearly 24 hours of bitter wild winds.  I can't say that I'd given much thought to the whole Mayan-calendar-ending-in-2012-and-what-oh-what-could-that-mean thing, but I've heard folks say that perhaps what the Mayans were onto, if anything, was a coming global shift in consciousness and not the end of the world as we know it.  So maybe the wind had to blow fiercely for 24 hours to get all of that bad juju out of the way to create space for a new era of peace and enlightenment.  Wouldn't that be nice, anyway?  Sing peace around the world.  It sure can't hurt.