2019 Life Logs, Day 355: Welcome Yule
Date: Saturday, December 21, 2019
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High 41, Low 30 degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I spent my day with Jonah and Ollie baking Christmas cookies at my house while Sam stayed home with Heather and Jed. They spent their day preparing to host their solstice celebration for friends beginning at 4 pm. Sam helped Heather make her annual chocolate yule log. When I brought Ollie and Jonah home, Sam was obviously proud of helping to the make the log and Ollie and Jonah were proud of their Christmas cookie contribution for tonight’s celebration to usher out the shortest day of the year. Tonight is the longest night of the year. As winter begins, we start to gain more daylight. And that is something to celebrate. After dropping off Jonah and Ollie, I headed back home to spend some time with Shadow and then returned later in the evening. I missed Jed lighting the fire in the fireplace as friends arrived and Heather reading The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper. But what a beautiful poem and what a beautiful way to usher in winter and the new year. And I must add that as the moment of winter solstice arrived at 11:19 pm, Shadow and I were sitting here watching a Christmas favorite, It’s a Wonderful Life, with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. And now to bed for the longest night.
The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper
So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!
