Winter Solsticesunrise plettSo sorry about my faux pas last night but thank you to those who read my unfinished post! And added comments!

The winter solstice happens tomorrow June 21st at around 18.39. The significance of the solstice is always very real for me. It marks the anniversary of our moving from our old and lovely home to our townhouse 2 years ago. It also marks the 2nd anniversary of my dreadful car accident the day before our move (today as I write)..

In the southern hemisphere the winter solstice marks the longest night and shortest day. Winter has seemed a long time coming this time round – just last week we were in Plettenberg Bay, in the South Western Cape at the tip of South Africa. The days were very warm, the nights cold, made even more so when we had load shedding (black outs) when our electricity grid was shut down. Thank heavens for gas heaters, log fire, candles and solar lamps. This has been happening for several years now much to our dismay and the fault is well and truly laid at our inept government and their handling of the parastatals. Our electricity supplier wants a further R50 BILLION from the government to bail them out … which means the tax payer will pay …

But when in Plett at 8.00 p.m. like clockwork we were plunged into darkness, it was thrilling to look up at the night sky. Those stars so bright, the milky way so pure. It was heart warming to see the magnificence of the skies and imagine the earth slowly turning.

The approaching solstice makes me think both backwards and forwards. Backwards when I reflect on that car accident 2 years ago the day before the big move when I learned how quickly these things happen. Smashed in by a truck who overshot the stop street, car turned upside down. I learned about impermanence and patience first hand, even right hand as my right writing hand was out of action for about 6 weeks  – I am constantly grateful that the accident didn’t render more dreadful injuries –

In thinking forwards I will as always plan a ritual for the day/night tomorrow. It is a sacred time, that time when there is a momentary stillness before the earth turns yet again and the Sun is re-birthed. Solstice comes from the Latin sol:sun; sistere:to stand still. It is the time in winter when the Earth’s axial tilt is farthest from the sun. We don’t say goodbye to winter, as it’s only just begun it seems. But I do know that from the gloom, darkness and dormancy of winter the light and warmth of spring will follow. And my orchids out on my patio are a delight! Why and how they bloom in this freezing cold weather is a mystery to me but they are such a joy and brighten my day every day in these winter months. There are many more buds still to open. The freeze is only just beginning.

orchids June 2015

From my garden taken this afternoon –

It is lovely to have glimpses of beauty, most often in Nature as in the photograph at the top that my younger son David took this past Monday morning of the sunrise from the balcony in Plett before he drove back to Cape Town. He totally surprised me last Friday around noon when he pitched up at the doorstep to spend my birthday and the weekend with us. I could not believe it and my heart was just about bursting with happiness. There is beauty all about, in friendship, love, compassion, even amongst the horrors all around. 

We are shocked at saddened by the dreadful shootings in Charleston 2 days ago and I/we stand with you in America in your sadness.

May your solstice be joyous and the turn of the wheel keep you in touch with all that is good and true and valuable.

62 Comments on Winter Solstice

  1. Ah Susan, I’m so behind in your postings all I can do is jump in again. Enjoying so much of what I have of your Lilith and Eve posts. I feel as a child of the sixties born to a fifties Mom, I have born a lot of the inferiorties women naturally felt during those decades. Yet I have also seen a few men reject many of the ideas that kept women from pursuing careers and dreams of being more than a wife and mom (which is also a great achievement). Thanks too for reflections on the winter soltice. Indeed you have much to be grateful for surviving the accident! Nothing like a beautiful sky as a reminder. So glad you are here. Thanks for your posts!

    • Thanks so much Sharon! yes, I’m also a child of the 60’s though born before that – a teenager in the 60’s – and on reflection I too had that vague sense that males were better valued. The times they are a changing’ – and while many men are still quite waspish (as in WASP), a great many of them are more in touch with themselves.

      We’re about to go to the bush – a good 6 hr drive away – back on Sunday and for this I am also grateful! Wide open skies, brilliant stars at night, no electricity! Have a lovely weekend. 🙂

  2. Interesting post. Winter solstice reminds me of something I read long ago. It said, if we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant. That’s a gorgeous pic of the sun in all its glory. Belated birthday wishes, Susan. And that surprise from you son must have made it a special one. Stay blessed always. Cheers ♥

    • Thank you Shilpa for this and belated birthday wishes (which are somehow extra nice to get when ‘belated’)! I like that saying re no winter not so pleasant spring … it’s quite deep!

  4. Thanks Elaine so much – and for sharing that powerful question you put to your mythology class. I’m thinking hard about it now – what would I take? An attitude of unknowing? Uncertainty? Faith? It’s a great question – I’ll ponder more! I hope others read your comment.

  5. I read this when you posted it, at summer solstice here, and thought, “There’s a mistake.” I figured it out and laughed. That’s how egocentric we are in the United States. I learned a little more about you and the terrifying accident, and thought a little more about the darkness there and the tipping earth.

    I’m most struck by the importance of ritual since that’s a constant in my life. I created a summer solstice ritual for my mythology class with plenty of gold and orange and light and fruit. My question for the ritual was, “What do you want to take with you into the dark?” since we’re heading in that direction. The sunrise photo is awe-inspiring.

  6. My oldest son will sometimes do that, too, just show up unannounced now that he’s going to a university closer to home. It’s great. I’m always happy when all my boys are together in my home. Sorry about your accident. I hope you are fully recovered, but it does change things, makes you appreciate our fragile lives. The world keeps turning.

    • Thanks Mary for coming by! Yes, such a treat when my husband myself and our sons are together in one place for a while … how lovely to get those unannounced visits from your son! All is well re the accident thank you.

  7. Hi,
    It is sometimes hard to believe that you are in winter, while I am at this moment enjoying the summer months. Yet as autumn begins to approach, I will also move towards the winter months and the solstice that takes place here on December 20th which is the shortest day and longest night for the people here on the European Continent. After this day has passed, it seems as things begin to happen quickly. Days lighten up and slowly the sun shines longer and plants begin to bud.

    Solstice is a time to look back and see how far we’ve come as we motivate ourselves to move forward. But it is also for me a time to just enjoy where I am at a particular moment before it becomes a part of my past.

    Thank you so much. Great article my dear.

    Shalom,
    Patricia

    • Thanks Patricia. I’m not sure but on this side at the tip of Southern Africa, it seems that the sun rises fractionally earlier now! It’s been only a week since the solstice … enjoy your long hot summer months!
      Shalom to you,
      Susan

  8. Just lovely, Susan. Gave me a moment to pause and reflect. Centering; I needed that. Thank you, and I love the photos. Wish I were there in person for the beautiful sunrise over the sea.

    Hard to believe it’s been two years since your car accident. I, too, am glad it wasn’t worse and especially that you are still present with us.

  11. How lovely that your son came to surprise you for your birthday. We went back to the UK as a surprise for my father in law’s 70th and it was such a lovely moment — he was so shocked he didn’t recognise us as first. Times like that really make you stop and appreciate just how wonderful time with family and loved ones is.

    Also, I’m amazed your orchids bloom in winter! I’ve never been able to keep them alive even living in Hong Kong, which is closer to their natural climate — are they a special kind of orchid?

    • Thanks Celine! I’m smiling at your saying about your father in law being shocked! Makes me think of the solstice and the earth standing still for a nano-second!

      I don’t know the name of the orchids – probably unpronounce-able. And honestly I don’t give them special food or care or anything, besides thanking them for their beauty! I think they thrive on flattery …

  12. Appreciation is the awakening of consciousness in early childhood about the existence of God. Before you were able to speak the word, God. Before your parents even began to talk to you about God.

    The warmth of the sun and beauty of nature, the birds and creatures all around. You “knew” about Genesis before you “knew” about Genesis.

  13. “If each of us in South Africa appreciated the help, talents and time of another AND LET IT BE KNOWN we could change our country around and change the world.” (Guillian)

    A profound statement I refer to myself, 1. Let some political leaders know how positive they are; 2. Very important in family relationships; 3. As an immigrant from Canada to the USA, momentarily setting aside the negatives about my new country, USA, and thinking about some wonderful public personalities as well as the fortune of being connected in personal relationships at large.

  14. A sacred time, indeed, when there is a momentary stillness. While our solstices might differ a bit, that same feeling remains here as well. Enjoyable post, and I like Gilian’s response.

    • Thanks Silvia for coming by! Already it feels as if the light comes a little earlier! I hope Gillian picks up on your comment 🙂

  15. Guillian van der Heijden gives a beautifully organized sermon about holiness in our fellow-beings. I would come to her church every week!

  16. I was guilty on Wednesday of losing my cool, but the Lord had a lesson in it.

    1. When one gives an instruction to a taxi/cab service then the other party are in the taxi/cab Service is obliged to take the to customer’s instruction correctly.

    2. However, the fault was that the person taking the instruction was too busy to listen and too fast to get me off the line, saying Yes madam we know what to do we do it all the time for everyone.

    3. The appointment was extra important and dare not be missed as no other opportunity would arise.

    4. Speaking from my mobile I again contacted controller No taxi/cab yet, time running out!

    5. He is there madam do you not see him. Not here and can’t be seen. Just then angel No. 1 came passing by, a young South African Asiatic, he spotted me in trouble and took up the matter on his mobile phone. Finally the taxi/cab was waiting at the wrong door. But my fuse blew when the driver had not the courtesy to offer assistance and ignored our arrival with his ear glued to his mobile.

    6. Quite a scene followed with yours truly blowing her trumpet! Angel No 2, came to my rescue, a South African Asiatic full of grace and beauty and dressed in her Muslim garb. Friends had gathered round me and offered moral support. The gracious young lady did not move from my side, but took my hand and offered to drive me down to the appointed place. Around me there in the busy shopping mall were people who had known me for years, Christians, Jews, Hindus and Muslim

    7 It made me think afterwards ‘who are God’s people? ‘ Surely those who worship HIM in the Beauty of Holiness and those who pause to listen and maintain the harmony. I thank the Lord that although South Africa is supposedly a land of racial division around us we have much good-will and kind hands that support one another irrespective of class, colour or creed.

    A taxi company is a Service provider and should take time to listen and serve correctly, but then I would not have had the pleasure of meeting another of God’s children from a religion so different from my own and in an ancient faith which is currently shaking the world to reassess it’s values.

    If each of us in South Africa appreciated the help, talents and time of another and let it be known we could change our country round and change the world!

    Dave’s pictures are marvellous, what beautiful orchids and a splendid sunset.

    Yes I know this is my country,
    Like an ever binding spell, she has clasped me to her bosom,
    E’ re I should leave I’ll love too well’ by F.E. Katz.

    • Ah Gillian, it’s always so special when people extend a helping hand. We’re reminded of that so often in our beleaguered land, when there’s a friendly interchange, a smile, friendly banter, eye to eye contact. Right now I have an American friend visiting up from Cape Town who has witnessed first hand the friendliness of our people. We have so much to offer –
      So pleased that after all it all worked out – those angels are all about us!

  17. Hi Susan – I’m grateful for these changing seasons and lengthening or shortening days – though I do prefer the long ones full of light … so will enjoy for another couple of months, perhaps three, before the night s really start to close in …

    There’s more time to think and do … I loved the sunrise photo .. and how lovely your son drove up for your birthday … belated Happy Returns … and yes your last two years have been a time of starting again … recovering from the accident, and making sure your new home in Jhb is working well …

    The world is full of hate and problems at the moment … a challenging and thought provoking time … with thoughts – Hilary

    • Hi Hilary, yes I too am grateful for the changing seasons – a reminder that change happens. Let’s hope that hate changes into love and care and respect for our fellow human beings and for our planet that we call home.

      Thank you for commenting and for your birthday wishes!

      Susan

  18. Somehow I pressed some keyboard areas that removed my name and replaced it by a part of a comment, IN HEAVEN is therapeutic. I hope I have corrected the problem.

  19. Thank you Guillian van der Heijden, for mentioning Saint Ignatius! I have a copy of THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES OF ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA. These exercises point exactly, in these evil times, where the proper focus of being human should be implemented. In 204 pages, there are meditations on sins, alms how to distribute, how to act in consolation, and much more, plus detailed instructions of how to meditate, – – – plus, examining the self to actually be aware if the instructions were followed as intended.

  20. An exquisite post, in both word and photos. I’m compelled by the solstice as well. Or maybe I just love summer but either way, I loved this post. Thanks.

    • Thank you Debby. Hope you’re having a happy day enjoying your solstice. Ours occurs in a few hours time – the actual stand still of the earth 🙂

  21. Here, of course, it is the summer solstice… and hard to believe the scales now dip towards winter already. How much of our lives do we simply waste in greyness, I wonder?

  22. Happy Solstice, Susan! Thank you for sharing your beautiful orchids and thoughts at this special time. It’s the summer solstice in the UK, and when I read that you are experiencing a winter one, it was another reminder of how the wheel turns… Keep warm, and have a lovely day! 🙂 x

  23. Corrections: pox-marked earth’s life-giving planet.

    By the way Susan, you do say another R 50 billion, so when was the first R 50, billion handed over?

    At present the country is still celebrating the second term of the ANC ruling party which was baptised on the eve of the world’s great recession with French Champaign at R 1800 per bottle!

    Lets have another Champaign!

  24. Dear Susan,

    Thank you for pointing out to our busy world the holy beauty within the space we occupy. A reading I have in comes from Saint Ignatius and he too urges that we absorb the beauty of Our Lord’s great creation. As satellite passes over Pluto now one can observe that after a voyage of almost 9 years our nearest neighbour Mars is barren, Pluto is dark, cold, and poke marked with heavenly debris and that is 493 million miles of space. The wonder of this earth life giving planet that produces such loveliness deserves to be honoured by the world’s leaders instead of raped of her forests, rivers and mineral wealth. The human race has no other home. As for Charleston, I’m shocked on a different level. I see the culprit as a thin deluded young man, his eyes blaze with determined hatred, the Mayor of Charleston in one statement condemns him to life imprisonment. That is a judgement from the mayor of the city who ought to know better than make a statement like that to the world. Have we not advanced? Public media spills bilge daily for majority consumption, while the law proclaims human rights and the right to self-defence and trail. Psychologists. Doctors. Authors. Susan Faludi’s two National Best sellers clearly state the malaise in the USA in ‘Backlash’ the wound to womanhood and ‘Stiffed, The Betrayal of he American Man,’ Faludi’s outstanding investigation of the twentieth century wound to manhood. The physical appearance of the shooter is lean, gaunt and hungry; no Superman muscles to show for his manhood, so a gun replaces his stricken ego. . He deserves as much sympathy from the public as do the families of the victims whose precious lives he lost. My sympathies go to both sides as this is merely the tip of an ice-berg in a world, where mankind (which means all of us) live under a delusion of democracy and modern scientific development, which maintains a law, by analogy, as one for presidential families and another for those of lesser strata. We need renaissance from Charleston to Hong Kong, from Washington, to Pretoria and all the leading political world capitols. Charleston? The twenty-first century Titanic.

    • Wow Gillian you graphically illustrate the vastness of Our Lord’s great creation thank you! And you do so too re: Susan Faludi’s books. Democracy in its present form has not served any of us well at all, besides the richest among us, those guilty of raping the land for profit. Disasters of Titanic proportions are happening daily. Human lives lost as well as our planet under grave threat of losing her heartbeat it seems at times ..

  25. On this planet we both call home, Susan, you are experiencing the opposite season, a good reminded of the yin-yang of our existence. Both happening simultaneously – but in opposite directions. As one commenter mentioned above, you connect us to the rhythms of nature.

    Thank you too for your compassionate comment about the unspeakable act in Charleston this week. Our prayers go out to God-fearing folks who were caught unawares and “in the line of duty” as it were. I pray something good that we can’t imagine now will come out of this vicious act. They left a legacy, and they have not died in vain, I have to believe.

    Yes, the wheel keeps turning, and we who have a call to voice the good must keep at it. Thank you, Susan.

    • I also have to believe that something of value will come of this terrible tragedy Marian. One of the women in the tragedy said she forgives the shooter who himself said that he almost didn’t shoot as everyone was so kind to him in the church. Actually, I have no words – except to hope and pray that we all re-look at our lives and selves and re-evaluate where we are, have been and are going, not only for ourselves, but for others and our children who inherit the earth ..

      May your summer solstice be blessed and happy. Thank you for your comment.

  26. An additional comment about the writing by MacNeice- Reality is quite abstract. I should have stated that the PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN is THERAPEUTIC– Thinking and enjoying it give us respite from the travails and evils in everyday of life.

  27. Louis MacNeice wrote a prologue to the book, Faust. This is so poetic and mysterious and it makes us think about the Solstice. I also think about the potential significance of the word TRANSITIONS – – -especially as we experience ourselves on a subjective level, and in fine detail second to second. Does REALITY reside in the COSMIC OR IN OUR INNER CONSCIOUSNESS?

    PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN

    The chanting sun, as ever, rivals
    The chanting of his brother spheres
    and marches round his destined circuit –
    A march that thunders in our ears.
    His aspect cheers the Hosts of Heaven
    Though what his essence none can say;
    These inconceivable creations
    Keep the high state of their first day.

    • Thanks Joseph re the MacNeice poem from the prologue of Faust. And happy summer solstice day to you. In transition always ..

  28. Thank you for your lovely post. As I mentioned before, it is interesting the changes during solstice as here in the northern hemisphere we are entering summer. Tomorrow will be our longest day and shortest night. Then thinking back and remembering your terrible crash, do you think we can force the planet to go backwards so that we can erase that terrible accident from your life? Also, is would be lovely to get the planet to go backwards and erase time… then I would be growing younger instead of older!

    The changes that come with each season are refreshing. I enjoy that sense of renewal.

    • Thank you Gwynn – and happy summer solstice day to you and family. No, we cannot force the planet to go backwards! I drove past the scene of the accident yesterday at roughly the same time of it en route somewhere and gave thanks yet again that all turned out ok … renewal on all levels. We can travel and unravel back in time with our thoughts and reflections I guess 🙂

  29. Wonderful discussion, Susan. I so love these posts of yours. You reconnect me with the rhythm of nature. It helps me forget the idiocy and anger that surrounds us, thinking of nature’s predictability and purpose.

  30. Now I’ve read the finished version, and I still think it is lovely. A belated happy birthday to you, too.
    The orchids are beautiful. I didn’t know they bloomed in cold weather.
    Here it is summer, although our solstice is expected to be rainy with thunderstorms. There will not be much sunshine on this official start of summer. Sunday is also Father’s Day.
    Thank you for the words about Charleston. Our nation is mourning once again. It is very sad.

    • Thanks Merril for coming by! It’s a gorgeous winter day here in Johannesburg, sunny, bright, not too cold – just walked back from taking us for breakfast at plant nursery down the road. My husband received Happy Father’s Day messages from our sons in different parts of the country so he was very pleased .. Enjoy your solstice and Father’s Day day! Thank you for birthday wishes 🙂

  31. The changes in the year and in each year are so important to notice as we mark the passage of time…

  32. Hello, Susan – I’ve been terribly out-of-touch-through-blogging since the “madness” of the April A-Z Daily Blogging! Thank you for this beautiful post on your winter solstice (as we are beginning our summer here). Lovely photos, thoughts and reflections. Good for the soul. And thank you for your comment/support regarding Charleston. This beautiful-awful-wonderful-huge-complex country of mine is in trouble, all the more so because so very, very many think that racism is “no longer a problem” here or that it’s only an individual problem. My heart is so heavy. But – your comments about your youngest son showing up really made me smile: my youngest son is in town for a couple days (first time in a few years, actually), and so I’m off to try to focus on that joy. Hugs to you.

    • Pam, lovely to hear from you thank you! I really want to catch up on your posts, they look so interesting and I will, time permitting. We have the same concern in our country re racism, more recently xenophobia which our govt puts down to criminal elements. Police bullying – you name it we have it. We have heavy hearts too … and wonder if and when there will ever be peace.

      Those sparks of joy are always a reminder of the beauty in the world and here’s to your re-connection with your son. Hugs to you.

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