Winter Solstice

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, today is the shortest day of the year, the day we call the winter solstice. Today the sun is at its farthest point south of the equator.

Of course, for those in the southern hemisphere, that means it's the longest day of the year. Friends in Australia and New Zealand must be celebrating out late with cookouts and Christmas songs tonight. (Or, well, they'll already be calling it "yesterday" down there.)

Time is a wonderful cycle, and I love the way the sun's face is balanced between north and south, giving and taking a little from each over the course of the year. The symmetry of it pleases me. Tomorrow the days will begin to lengthen again, so even though this is the first day of winter, it is also the first step in our long journey back to spring.

(The picture up above is handmade, and although it is a Christmas card, it reminds me of the solstice, too. That silvery sun and the frosty snowflakes and stars are exactly how I think of the solstice.)

This year on the winter solstice, I worked my last day in the office. I will put a few more hours in this week (from home) and then I'll work a little at the beginning of the year (also from home). But it's strange to think that I won't be going back to my office anymore, and that my phone extension will be cut off, and I'll become someone who exists only on the company network.

This evening after work, Marty and I attended a class at the hospital for expectant parents. (And no, he wasn't the only man there.) I feel like every class we attend, every book I read, brings us closer to the next part of our lives.

So that was our solstice this year. To me it feels like a time of turning from one thing to the next, and I guess it really is.