Exploring Solstice

Winter solstice has brought reflections from Unitarian Universalists bloggers on the meaning of the longest night of the year:

Jason Pitzl-Waters, at the Wild Hunt, offers “A Blessed Solstice,” in which he explores the history of solstice observance, and excerpts from recent media coverage of contemporary celebrations. (Thanks to Rev. Tony at Sunflower Chalice for highlighting the Wild Hunt post).

Rev. Jen Crow, at the Wellspring blog of the Unitarian Church of Rochester, has written “Finding Light in the Darkness.” She reflects upon the recent murder of a Unitarian Universalist family in Clearwater, writing:

…this capacity for evil lives in each one of us – and the real question for me then becomes not only how do I sustain myself in the darkness, but how do I and do we ward off the shadows of evil that can seduce us and lead us away from connection with all that is holy and good? As I rage and question and cry – I hear the voice of a colleague knocking at the door of my mind – lean in to the love, she tells me, lean in to the love and the darkness at your door will be bearable.

Rev. James Ford, at Monkey Mind, considers in “Happy Yule” the historic intertwining of Christmas and Yule. He considers the role of Unitarians in this history, and the meaning of the holiday today:

In the middle of the nineteenth century when Germany was the hotbed of Western intellectual inquiry, many American intellectuals (read Unitarians) traveled there to study. And while there they saw how Yule had transformed Christmas into something wonderful, a genuine marker of the turn toward light after the long tumble toward the dark…

Living in Massachusetts where we are buried in a couple of feet of snow, I feel deep in my bones, that longing for the turning to the light. And, while it is mostly a noticing of the calendar, I also find it bubbling in my blood, a sense that that tumble toward the dark has stopped, and something magical has happened.