Let there be light.....

Our writing word this time is "light." It's the word I have given, mainly because at this time of year, I need light!! I know we collectively, do a wonderful job of creating light in our winter darkness. We decorate our houses, our trees, our pathways, with a myriad of sparkling colours, to give us a "lift."

We light candles indoors. We illuminate a Christmas tree or a menorah. We add glitter to cards, cookies, candies, again anything to brighten the day. We gild with paint, threads and sugar. We sparkle in fabric, yarn and beads. We shine where we can, with what we have.

The sun beams through my window at a 45º angle. I shift my work. I don't complain, because it is the sun. Its precious hours to shine are reduced by 6 or 7.  I count the days to December 21, my favourite day. It's the winter solstice, the day when the sun begins its journey back to the Tropic of Cancer.

I love to measure life in these grand and ancient parameters. It reminds me that, although I am merely a grain of sand in the huge hourglass of Time, I am still part of something ethereal, something eternal, something greater than the whole composition of the earth and its galaxy.

However, in spite of my need for sunlight, I do enjoy starlight. I look for Orion in the south sky in March. Finding the Big Dipper and Polaris ironically is always grounding. In another time I might have been a navigator. My father collected sextants and various other navigational tools. These might have been my search lights.

I remember once, years ago, going to a presentation at the now defunct planetarium in Toronto. The subject was the Christmas Star. I went with my son, who was about 3 or 4 at the time. It was a gorgeous explanation of the heavens and the position of the various constellations, at the time historians suggest was the first Christmas. It was astronomy, astrology and a little magic all rolled into one.

Looking for light in all that is good in this world is one way out of the darkness. I so often don't do this. Hampered by a limited mindset, I often fail to see what is truly precious and enlightening. I need to switch on my high beams and find the brilliance that is hiding in plain sight (light).

Have enlightening day!