Solstice Fire
22nd December 2015
22nd Dec
Solstice Fire
It is the shortest day, the winter solstice. A time that seems endlessly dark, drab and unforgiving as an uncanny and unsettling quiet falls over the land.
We are filling our houses with light and greenery to push back the dark and we all look forward to the sun rising once again, though we are temporarily lost to the dark.
Despite this, I love this time of year. There is something, and please excuse the cliche, that is magical about this period as there is a wildness that seems appropriate to the seasons festivities. As I head out into the Lakeland Fells, everything is rarefied, harder and more threatening. The winds, the rains, the rock all seem to be harder, or increase in steepness and ferocity.
The grip we have on the world slips as we are no longer in control of the environment we inhabit. The time of year expresses a contempt and disregards our claims of authority, as its allegiance is now to the force of nature. Our power is diminished.
This time of year is the unchallenged domain of nature. She is proud, raw and at her most powerful and must step aside. However, I am a true disciple of Nature as it is this time of year I truly feel alive. I am forced to reconnect with my environment as it dictates my day to day life. Where I go, how I might get there (or not) the chances I take now have very serious consequences. This season I am one of her humble citizens and I only dare to look into her fire at my cost.
Solstice Fire
It is the shortest day, the winter solstice. A time that seems endlessly dark, drab and unforgiving as an uncanny and unsettling quiet falls over the land.
We are filling our houses with light and greenery to push back the dark and we all look forward to the sun rising once again, though we are temporarily lost to the dark.
Despite this, I love this time of year. There is something, and please excuse the cliche, that is magical about this period as there is a wildness that seems appropriate to the seasons festivities. As I head out into the Lakeland Fells, everything is rarefied, harder and more threatening. The winds, the rains, the rock all seem to be harder, or increase in steepness and ferocity.
The grip we have on the world slips as we are no longer in control of the environment we inhabit. The time of year expresses a contempt and disregards our claims of authority, as its allegiance is now to the force of nature. Our power is diminished.
This time of year is the unchallenged domain of nature. She is proud, raw and at her most powerful and must step aside. However, I am a true disciple of Nature as it is this time of year I truly feel alive. I am forced to reconnect with my environment as it dictates my day to day life. Where I go, how I might get there (or not) the chances I take now have very serious consequences. This season I am one of her humble citizens and I only dare to look into her fire at my cost.