Winter Solstice

The sunsets that I watch from my front courtyard have been coming earlier each evening, but tonight they will begin coming later with the Winter Solstice.

I love the sky and clouds at sunset, sunrise, daytime, anytime. This quote from The Cloud Appreciation Society's December newsletter is perfect for solstice thoughts:

"The winter evening often comes robed

in purple and gold,

and in the westering sun

the iced groves glitter

as beneath a shower of diamonds --

and through the twilight heaven

innumerable stars shine with a

purer light than summer ever knows."

-- From "Essay on American Scenery" (1836)

by landscape artist Thomas Cole

This next quote was in a blog that I follow (princessbubblescreates.blogspot.com). It seems appropriate for this time of the solstice and of our weariness with Covid and the isolation it has brought. It has reminded me that, "We have only this moment ..."

 "Begin doing what you want to do now. 

We are not living in eternity.

We have only this moment,

sparkling like a star in our hand --

melting like a snowflake.

Let us use it before it is too late."

-- Marie Beynon Lyons Ray

Many years ago I made a very large quilt titled "Winter Solstice Spirits." Here is a detail. I was living in northern Illinois then, where the winter solstice is a time of frigid cold, icy landscapes, and bonfires, unlike the fair weather here in Tucson in December.

In addition to the solstice, tonight is also a rare event in our solar system from Earth's perspective, called the "great conjunction." Our two largest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, will appear closer together in the night sky than they have since March 4, 1226, and some are calling it the Christmas Star because it will look like a very bright star. 

To see it, look for a bright light above the southwestern horizon at twilight tonight. I've been watching them get closer together over the last few nights, but they're too far away to show up in a photo.

So, wherever you are

on this planet of ours,

 

I hope you have a

COZY SOLSTICE!