Showing posts with label redwings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label redwings. Show all posts

Saturday, December 21, 2013

WINTER SOLSTICE




Today is December 21. The shortest days of the year are past, and from now on they will gradually grow longer. It will be good to see  the sun early in the morning again, instead of this dismal dark sky.

I’m pretty much a morning person. In summer I love getting up early, seeing the new day dawning before most people are awake. It’s harder in winter, though. When the windows are dead black, a wind is blowing, and the house is cold, staying in bed is too tempting.

When I was going to school or working full time, I sometimes sat down at my desk before the sun rose. I could think clearly then, uninterrupted by whatever dark events and thoughts clouded my mind later. One spring, for a class in animal behavior I even went to a nearby swamp at sunrise every day to make a study of redwings’ courtship behavior. It was a magical time of day, with pale golden light filtering through the trees, and only the birds for company.

A few years later, I found myself crossing San Francisco Bay in a ferry boat before dawn a few times a week. The moon and stars shone in an inky sky above the bay. By the time I reached The City, the sun had risen, illuminating the Transamerica Pyramid and Coit Tower.  I had drunk some coffee and read the morning Chronicle, ready for whatever the day would bring.

Today is all too short, and I am much older. The sun rose at 7:20, and will set at 4:48. Less than ten hours of light! I woke early in the darkness, and turned on some holiday lights while breakfasting. Tonight I will light  a candle on the dinner table. I will delay the night.