Solstice

From the dark of the longest night of the year back into the light, we bring you ... 

The Winter Solstice!

First a dark walk on the beach,

the surf behind me loud and booming, the new moon 

the slightest sliver of silver drifting in and out of ominous black clouds,

the air smellng of damp sea salt and mysterious sulphuric marsh gasses from pluff mud at low tide, and in the center of the dark road a huge lone seagull, bright white in the headlights, challenging for his right to the road.  Then ...

into the light!  

At Murrels Inlet a walk along the harbor and

a welcome reminder of longer days ahead.  

We picked a restaurant for a drink and a snack 

-- shrimp, and hushpuppies dipped in honey butter -- 

and stared out at the lights from our window table.  

"The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory."

Gary Zukov, American author and spiritual teacher.