We marked the winter solstice on Wednesday:\u00a0\u00a0the day in our\u00a0annual trip around the sun when Earth’s north pole is pointed directly away from the sun, keeping the northern hemisphere in darkness for longer than any other day of the year. \u00a0On Wednesday, in Los Angeles, we had less than 10 hours of day between sunrise and sunset. \u00a0Today, already, the day is a few seconds longer than on Wednesday, not enough to notice, but moving us inevitably toward\u00a0spring and summer. \u00a0
We use movement out of darkness into light as a metaphor\u00a0for hope and progress. \u00a0We\u00a0come\u00a0out of the darkness of troubling times into the light of liberation or joy. \u00a0Actually, though, a dark night can be filled with joy, and a bright day can shine on oppression and suffering as well as gladness. \u00a0But there is something literal about winter turning toward spring that has the hopeful feeling. \u00a0The earth in winter’s\u00a0quiescence begins to move toward’s spring’s abundance, new life, rebirth, new creation.
Perhaps today you need winter’s rest. \u00a0I hope you’ll find and enjoy it: \u00a0the cozy, peaceful, dark. \u00a0But perhaps, also today, you’ll begin to plant the seeds that will germinate in the warming earth and the lengthening daylight of the months to come, eventually to burst into bright blooms of joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"