Winter

Winter begins tomorrow in the Northern Hemisphere. Here in New England, we have already had cold nights, frost and a little snow. The issue of Winter is more an issue of sun light here.

 

Tomorrow is Winter Solstice. This is the mother of all religious and secular holidays of this season. In the Mayan calendar, according to some Cassandras, tomorrow is the last day of Earth's life.

 

I mark this low ebb of light every year with a mixture of thoughts and feelings. Unlike many people, I enjoy this low-light season. So, I mark the turnaround as a time to enjoy cozy late afternoons as darkness falls. I sleep in when possible in the dim morning light. I relish the feeling of being inside a warm house with the sound of cold wind whipping dead leaves at the windows. When I enjoy a string of Christmas lights along an urban fence, I think of my ancient ancestors huddling at a carefully tended fire in a vast winter landscape.

 

I have been cold in Winter. In my youth, with little money, I lived in a summer cottage on a wind-swept peninsula one Winter. There were visible spaces between the wallboards. I packed them with newspaper. The heat was an old oil stove in the kitchen. After dark, I scrambled up the tight staircase to the squat second floor rooms where the heat collected. The house's two cats stuck to me like Velcro.

 

I respect Winter as I respect the planet which has made me and has sustained me. This rare rock in cold Space is more than a place for parking lots and shopping malls. It is not divinely designated as the playground of one human species. Being in touch with the seasons and my place in them is an important part of my humanist consciousness.