Nice solstice post! Here in Michigan we’ve had pretty good luck with white solstices/Christmases, but not this year.
When we moved here from California, I found myself obsessively looking up the sunrise and sunset times each day before and after the winter solstice. How much more light are we actually going to get? When’s the sun going to come up before 8 a.m.? (Apparently we have the auto barons to thank for putting us in the same time zone as Wall Street.)
And then there’s the weird thing about the days not getting longer equally at each end. Somehow, for reasons I still don’t understand, having to do with axial tilt and the shape of our orbit, the sun will start setting later almost immediately. But it won’t start rising earlier until early January. Only late in that month will it rise before 8. So yeah, a lot of dark mornings ahead, even if all the solstice markers remind us that the light is returning. That’s why we keep our Christmas lights going until Feb. 1. #morningpersonproblems
Love this, Ryan! And I think you get the Christmas story exactly right! It is a radically subversive story of where hope/light is found: not in the power halls of Caesar Augustus....but in that barn where two people are doing the best they can in trying circumstances to bundle and nurture a vulnerable newness that will challenge all the old worn out assumptions. Merry Christmas!
Nice solstice post! Here in Michigan we’ve had pretty good luck with white solstices/Christmases, but not this year.
When we moved here from California, I found myself obsessively looking up the sunrise and sunset times each day before and after the winter solstice. How much more light are we actually going to get? When’s the sun going to come up before 8 a.m.? (Apparently we have the auto barons to thank for putting us in the same time zone as Wall Street.)
And then there’s the weird thing about the days not getting longer equally at each end. Somehow, for reasons I still don’t understand, having to do with axial tilt and the shape of our orbit, the sun will start setting later almost immediately. But it won’t start rising earlier until early January. Only late in that month will it rise before 8. So yeah, a lot of dark mornings ahead, even if all the solstice markers remind us that the light is returning. That’s why we keep our Christmas lights going until Feb. 1. #morningpersonproblems
thanks Larry! we've got two small kids, so we know all about dark mornings. have a Merry Christmas out there!
Love this, Ryan! And I think you get the Christmas story exactly right! It is a radically subversive story of where hope/light is found: not in the power halls of Caesar Augustus....but in that barn where two people are doing the best they can in trying circumstances to bundle and nurture a vulnerable newness that will challenge all the old worn out assumptions. Merry Christmas!
thank you Mary! wishing you all a Merry Christmas and looking forward to seeing you again soon.