Happy Solstice

 

Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year: There will be nine hours and four minutes of day in Argelès, eight hours and thirty seven minutes in Geneva, and nine hours and five minutes in Boston.

It is the start of the new year. The planet will be turning. The days will be getting longer.

The winter solstice, occurs when either of the earth poles are at their maximum tilt from the sun. Since the beginning of time, archeological evidence shows examples of people celebrating it or maybe even fearing it.

To celebrate we are bringing in our living tree with the hope that its fate will not be like last year's. That tree died in the canicule. I'm not sure how to protect it if we spend the summer in Geneva? Drive it back and forth? Ask our landlords if we can plant it in their garden?

The planet is not at rest. Fissures spew lava, plates shift, the climate is reacting to man's folly.

The humans stomping around on its surface are a violent machine doing damage to their fellow humans. Many of our so-called leaders are dangerously insane while appearing somewhat normal till they speak or act.

Not a happy outlook for the new year.

Still, in the warmth of my family, we will decorate our tree with memory ornaments, share the warmth of our homes and each other, see friends. We are grateful if not a bit guilty for the richness of our lives while others lack even basic water, food and shelter. I am in touch at some primitive level with all the other peoples who walked the planet living with the hope that the new year will be better.

Happy Solstice to all.