Dear Editor,
I heard there was a sign in a small rural town hotel in Thailand which read: “Tell us what you need. We’ll tell you how you can do without it.”
At this season we’ve certainly been doing without much daylight and even without much outdoor warmth. We appreciate any and all the sunshine that comes our way, warming us physically, emotionally and more. Yet when Sun settles down for the night over the western horizon, many of us reach for the bones of local Trees, which have stored that solar energy into logs. What a blessing coming from our neighbours, the Trees.
The other warmth we seek out at this season of relative darkness is from connecting with our fellow humans in our communities. Gatherings are what help us through the longest nights, singing, praying, celebrating, and simply observing together the changes of the season… and the beauty surrounding us. Gatherings like Killaloe’s Dinner of Good Cheer on Sunday, December 24 at 1 PM…. and so many other similar gatherings.
What a blessing it is to be alive on Earth at this time. Challenging for sure, yet worth the effort.
It does seem that the most marketed item in all forms of media, excepting local community newspapers, is fear. In one form or another we’re encouraged to be afraid of getting sick, getting hurt, being without, not having enough, getting invaded in one form or another. We’ve gotten so used to having fear served to us that many people have accepted it as a way of life, a stressful way of life.
With Thursday’s Winter Solstice we get to acknowledge that though darkness has many more hours per day than light, day light hours will soon be growing and growing and growing. We don’t need to give more attention to fear. When it’s offered we simply don’t have to buy it, just like all those advertisements for gifts we don’t really need at this season. We don’t need to buy the fear. The light is coming to replace the darkness. It’s part of a natural cycle.
In our communities we’re all needing more light, and we have learned healthy ways to do without it while we await its return. May it be so.
Wishing you all joy, safety and harmony and loads of Love,
Robbie Anderman
Killaloe ON
