The winter solstice brings both excitement as well as melancholy for me, and for the same reason – the days will start to get longer. I love the coziness of the shorter days, but also love the thought of seeing my bees again come spring. I am one of the few, it seems, that thrives during winter. I love the snow and cold weather. Nothing makes me happier than a day spent spinning or knitting inside my warm home, watching the snow and winds alter the landscape outside my window. I even love the shorter daylight. Truly, I resonate with the semi-hybernating bear.
My house sits in a holler along the western edge of Pennsylvania Appalachia. This time of year the sun sets behind the hill on my homestead at 2pm. No, it’s not completely dark. In fact, if you look up the road, you can see the tiny town a half mile away still illuminated by the rays of the sun. Just not here. Still, I’m happy in this season. Candles and fairly lights illuminate my little home, and warm tea and wool are always nearby.
This solstice feels a little extra special in that it takes place during Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, and coincides with the appearance of the first sliver of the renewed moon, which for me, is the start of a new month. It feels like the perfect time for new beginnings. Time to stop procrastinating. Time to stop doubting myself, or caring what anyone else thinks. Time to just get started.
So here I am. Feeling completely unequipped to start writing a blog, even though I’ve been planning and working towards this day for more than a year now. But as I wrote the first entry in my new moon journal late last night (more like super early this morning), I made a decision that I was just going to get started. Today, on the winter solstice. A time for new beginnings.
No, the website isn’t perfect. No, I’m not particularly talented with web design. But I just want to write and share. To document the things that mean the most to me, and to share with those looking for a place to come to hear about random topics. In a day and age where videos flood our mind with information overload, here we can sit and read, as fast or as slow as we want. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good video too, but I find my mind craving the simplicity of just…reading. It’s here that I can control the rate at which my brain digests information. I can take a moment to either stare into the void or assimilate all the meaning in a simple photograph. In two words – slow down. I want to reconnect with the person I was before technology took over seemingly every aspect of our modern lives. As a Gen-Xer I’m old enough to remember a time without email and cell phones. When we spent all of our waking hours outside riding bikes, climbing trees, swimming in the nearby crick (that Pennsylvania Appalachia for ‘creek’). We didn’t come home until the street lights came on, and if you wanted to get in touch with your friends, you had to use the ‘communal’ house phone. There was no texting, YouTube, Instagram, or the myriad other forms of social media to manage. We had time….and imagination. And while I have more to say on this, my goal today was to post – something – for the first time. Sunset is soon and the homestead needs to be put to sleep for the night.
If you made it to the end…from the bottom of my heart, thank you for reading.
I hope to see you again soon!
