Solstice...

22 December 2005
Soundcliff

The morning after Solstice is a bit like Boxing Day for its slight sense of letdown, except that there is another louder celebration yet to come...

This basic planetary event has slipped ahead on the calendar of that later celebration which overshadows it in our culture. While it is simple to prove & even to understand what is the primal event defining this season, that observation has been relegated to be a curious footnote in most people’s minds... now, why in the world would not Terra realize that the proper day to shift on its axis should be December 25th?!?! Our entire culture shifts in preparation of that!

If you don’t get the joke, you might be addicted to telling yourself other fibs...

So this gorgeously stormy light does not hold with the notion of one of those mythic days of quiet weather named after a seabird, believed to be the kingfisher, about which Pliny observed: "Halcyons are especially remarkable for this- the seas and those who sail them know the days when they breed at midwinter, on what are called "Halcyon days", during which the sea is calm and navigable, especially near Sicily. They make their nests a week before the shortest day, and lay a week after it.

The Kingfishers who live in our cliff could not trust what might be true about Sicilian mid-winters. Still we have had some recent days which temporarily demonstrated such mild qualities. Hopefully there will be more soon.

Today’s wind is roiling the water into white capped darkness, struck now & again with slashes of hard low light breaking through the clouds opened by its force. I’ve not seen our Kingfishers, But birds like the gulls & a lone hawk struggle to tack into it or soar with it at incredible speeds. Atmospheric colors shift almost as quickly. Tourmaline & aquamarine might be descriptive.

We celebrated yesterday’s shift toward any gardener’s delight at the promise of lengthening days by being quite lazy. The deep family of friends we with whom we usual circle to mark the earthy holy days was broken by other constraints & contingencies until later last evening when we simply made a nice dinner with our island-local god buddies.

We had noted the moment of the shift still abed with coffee, which is my favorite way to celebrate almost anything. A beach walk gave opportunity to cut some cedar boughs with which to do a little decorating. Neither of us is prone to ornamenting a tree, so we do not have much history with that Victorian tradition in the usual sense. It is rare for us to be at home for Christmas. We get to make this one up from scratch! We will keep it quite simple.

We see this as an opportunity to gift ouselves with visits with friends & to see a few movies... taking in some of the invitations to parties along the way.

Today I have several clients coming to shop in the studio. I’d made myself unavailable for that yesterday, no matter that one is our State Representative...

I will soon be content to let the biz slide toward a peace less populated, after all those who have recently so nicely energised my working space... which happily is back to being a bit messy again, of course,

There is now nought but to run the rapids of the hyper holidays... wheee!

Ho 'ding! Ho!