The shortest day was so very full, with lovely lingering tea drinking to start things off (my fave organic Earl Grey) and a candlelit lunch date for Dimitri and I, served by three sweet girls playing Restaurant in full form.  Some time to share our love of needle felting with a little friend, more tea (Rooster Rooibos Chai from the TeaFarm nearby in Cowichan). Then somehow there was not enough time for errands, so I reduced the list and just made a couple quick stops, sharing gifts, receiving handmade cookies, picking up treats for the wild birds that share our green space.  Then, finally out to enjoy the Solstice fresh air. Enjoying the crunch of snow underfoot, the last bits left in the yard and along the road, as I walk along with my happy pup (she really does love the snow, it makes her young again). Picking up a daughter bubbling with joy as she reads jokes from the book her friend gifted her with. Home to a cozy fire and more sewing and then a bit of frenzy as we try too quickly to race to get supper on the table and make our annual Solstice treat for the birds. Feeling frazzled, I was going to suggest we just put out the new feeder and move into candlelit stories, but the girls requested the usual “stringing cranberries” and though there were some short temper moments for all of us, this did help me slow down again.  As I watched Alex patiently string her berries while Raena whirled about with her flashlight outside (hanging her string on the yew tree), I realized that they do enjoy these Solstice traditions of ours, as much as I do (and on this busy night, even more than me).  Time for a new tradition to help us all find the peace I always hope this night will hold….a candlelit bath for the girls, they listen while I read them a sweet story and then we each blow out one of the candles and make a Solstice wish.  I breathe in the magic of what is possible in the rebirth of this coming season, I welcome the light and wish for PATIENCE and a kind, BIG heart leading my way!

What are your Solstice intentions my friends?

Before I tuck my girls in, we make time for a snuggly story (the chapter in Becca At Sea tonight is titled “Seafire” and speaks of midnight starlight and bioluminesence in the sea, how perfect).  I finish the night with laundry, a few more holiday decorations, more tea (Peaceful Petal Blend from my dear friend at La Belle Vie Studio) and a bit of Mary Oliver. This one jumps out at me tonight (read fourty instead of sixty, it could be my own heart speaking from the pages):

Halleluiah

“Everyone should be born into this world happy
and loving everything.
But in truth it rarely works that way.
For myself, I have spent my life clamoring toward it.
Halleluiah, anyway I’m not where I started!

And have you too been trudging like that, sometimes
almost forgetting how wondrous the world is
and how miraculously kind some people can be?
And have you too decided that probably nothing important
is ever easy?
Not, say, for the first sixty years.

Halleluiah, I’m sixty now, and even a little more,
and some days I feel I have wings.”