Winter is here…

I haven’t blogged since August.  Four months have gone by!

Today a new season starts – winter – and autumn is history.

Autumn is always busy… this year there was football to watch, a 2 week road trip in October, and precious time with family and friends. A few more books have been read and we started our third year of marriage.

There’s something soothing about the change of seasons. I’m looking forward to a day of reflection of the year that was, planning and dreaming of the year that will be, and hopefully celebrate by driving around and looking at Christmas lights on the longest night of the year.

Below are quotes and poems that I found on quotegarden.com – I hope you enjoy them and they give you cause to reflect on winter!

“Yule, is when the dark half of the year relinquishes to the light half.   Starting the next morning at sunrise, the sun climbs just a little higher and stays a little longer in the sky each day.  Known as Solstice Night, or the longest night of the year, much celebration was to be had as the ancestors awaited the rebirth of the Oak King, the Sun King, the Giver of Life that warmed the frozen Earth and made her to bear forth from seeds protected through the fall and winter in her womb.  Bonfires were lit in the fields, and crops and trees were “wassailed” with toasts of spiced cider.”
–   Yule Lore  

I love the above information – it reminds that we are moving towards light; more sunlight, Christmas…

“Every year at just this time,
In cold and dark December,
Families around the world
All gather to remember,
With presents and with parties,
With feasting and with fun,
Customs and traditions
for people old and young.”
–   Helen H. Moore 

“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!”
–  Charles Dickens

It’s fun to reminisce about Christmas past… childhood, parenthood…

“Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.”
–   Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ring Out, Wild Bells

This feels like a New Year wish… a wish for shrugging off difficulties and bringing in the good. It’s a hopeful wish…

“May you have the gladness of Christmas which is hope;
The spirit of Christmas which is peace;
The heart of Christmas which is love.”
–   Ada V. Hendricks 

Hope your Christmas is all of these…. full of hope, peace, and love.