Winter Solstice

I don't remember a Solstice that looked this wintry -- certainly not in the nearly two decades during which I've resided in the northwest. The snow drifts form an irregular pattern on the yard -- like a restless lover's bunched up blankets my bed.

This shortest day yielding to the returning of the light is the favorite day of the year in this quarter. The simple analogy of darkness yielding to light, and the blessed reality, the returning of more light in the long winter compel me to gratitude.

Understand holidays, leastwise those based in the retail environment, eludes me. Weary head scratch. The Solstices and the Equinoxes wherein something actually happens that isn't human created -- are the days that evoke deepest contemplations.