I took the dogs out for a walk a couple of days ago. The air was crisp and hoar frost clung to the branches of the willows and aspens and evergreens in our yard. Sun glistened on the frozen crystals making them glitter like diamonds. Days like that really are when winter shows her true beauty.
While I stood watching the dogs follow scent trails in the snow, darting through the trees and circling back to catch a new scent, I listened to the birds.
There seem to be fewer – a consequence, I think, of the bird flu epidemic that swept through our province last year. Nevertheless, there are still plenty visiting the feeders – blue jays, pine and evening grosbeaks, chickadees, and red polls. Now and then, a woodpecker will swoop in scattering the diners or a nuthatch will whiz past on its way to get a quick meal.
I looked at the sun shining through the trees and wondered at the time. But when I checked my watch it was only a few minutes past eleven. Our daylight hours are still quite short and the sun never rises very high in the sky these days. Instead it makes a low graceful arch across the horizon. So although it was pressing on to noon, the sun was still low and casting long shadows in the snowy yard.
Long shadows…the long and lingering negative effects from something.
I can’t say I’m sorry to say goodbye to 2023. While it had its highlights it certainly had some lows. Some of those lows are still casting long shadows in my life and I suspect will be for a long time yet. But here’s the thing about shadows – in order for there to be a shadow there has to be light.
Today, December 31, 2023 will see seven hours six minutes and thirty-two seconds (07:06:32) of daylight (sunrise to sunset) in my yard. Tomorrow, January 1, 2024 the sun will shine just a little bit longer – seven hours seven minutes and fifty-four seconds (07:07:54)!
It’s not much but it’s a gain of one minute and twenty-two seconds. By the end of the first week of January we will have gained just over ten minutes of daylight. That sounds better doesn’t it? But remember that it only comes in gains of less than two minutes a day.
The things that cast long shadows, that plunge us into darkness, are scary and often painful. But even in the darkness we have choices. We can choose to sit and wrap ourselves in our sadness and misery, or we can choose to find a path forward, back into the light – even if the light only comes in the tiniest of increments.
I choose light. As much as it is ever in my own power to do so, I choose light. And in so doing, every time, every day that I choose light I move closer to a longer day and a shorter shadow.
Whatever 2023 brought to your door, whatever challenges you faced, I hope you chose light. I hope that you found the strength and the courage to move forward, that you found hope, and that you offered kindness and grace to yourself and to others.
And if you’re still standing in those long shadows, I hope that 2024 is your year, your time to step out of the shadows and into the light.
Happy New Year my friends!
With love…
