On our way back
~ today is so much more than the first day of winter
The winter solstice occurs during the hemisphere's winter. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is the December solstice (December 21 or 22) and in the Southern Hemisphere, this is the June solstice (June 20 or 21). Although the winter solstice itself lasts only a moment, the term also refers to the day on which it occurs. - source, Wikipedia
Amid the chaos of everyone’s busy life- for a moment the earth’s tilt stops and a moment later it starts a journey, a tilt back the other way.
It is hard for me to imagine the size of it all; to Imagine the enormity, and precision, of a ball weighing 13,170,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds, flying in its orbit around the sun at a speed of 67,000 miles per hour (107,000 kilometres per hour), that for only a moment, shifts its direction of tilt - that solstice moment, it’s been doing for 4.54 billions of years.
Metaphor to dwarf all metaphors.
Most of us navigate our little bodies, bicycles and cars with nothing approaching that kind of precision even once; to imagine something so large and so ancient and precise is magnificent and massive to understand the magic of nature. We often marvel at nature, the unique nature of everything alive from the microbial to the mastodon, the tides, the dinosaurs and the incredible accomplishments of our species are dwarfed beyond imagining. I can’t comprehend the complexity of life on any given day. Still, when I try to understand the little problems and massive difficulties of my life it only magnifies the triviality of what we all do in the great scheme of things.
We are, compared to all that, so tiny and unimportant.
And when we compare our opportunity every day, compared to all the days that have gone before when we’ve failed to dazzle in any way, we have unlimited potential to do magnificent things with our days ahead.
Our moment of turnaround is brief, but powerful because each day becomes better and longer and each dark bleak night gets shorter.
Happy winter everyone, everything will be better now, because, on the first day of the season we call winter, we are on our way back toward summer …
I publish this Musings column daily and post poems, short stories and other ‘plus/+’ content weekly. Many of you enjoy this content for free, and I truly appreciate your readership. Paid subscriptions are modest: $8 monthly (26¢ a day), $72 annually (20¢ a day), or you can donate any amount. Paid subscribers get extra content, but everyone is welcome - your presence matters. But if you haven't yet become a paid subscriber, I'd be grateful if you'd consider it. Thank you for reading Musings, and thanks to Substack for supporting writers like me. Warm regards, Mark
This week’s bonus [Musings+] postings for access by PAID subscribers:
SHORT STORY:
POEM: ALL HANDS
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