by Helen Heath OAM, executive officer of the City of Greater Dandenong Interfaith Network
We are just one week off the winter solstice – the day of the year that has the least daylight hours of any in the year, usually occurring on, or either side of 22 June.
Happening as either of the Earth’s poles are the furthest distance from the sun, it is not only the shortest day of daylight but the longest night and maybe a time to snuggle up and take in more sleeping hours?
A signal that Winter is really upon us, for many this season of Winter is dreaded as dark, cold, and often wet and gloomy.
Following the beauty of Autumn when the brightness of a tree’s many-coloured leaves are shed, some more reluctantly and later than others, a bleak and windswept landscape can emerge.
A tree shedding or losing its leaves means the tree spends less energy through the harsh Winter, conserving moisture within its trunk, preventing it from drying out and allowing the winds to blow through its branches, putting less strain on it.
With the lack of sunlight, it starts to reduce the amount of chlorophyll (green) it produces and begins to protect itself from the winter cold and dryness.
At this time of the year, we can also feel more inclined to stay indoors, to retreat and take refuge from the storms of life – to lay low.
This time of the year can be a kind of spiritual hibernation where we might reflect on those areas of losses (like the shedding of leaves) and take a stock take (not of the sales variety) in mid-year (and not only for new year resolutions).
Neale Donald Walsh has said: “If you don’t go within, you go without”.
For me Winter holds the possibility of setting aside and withdrawing into a time to pause, listen and reflect with ourselves, letting go of those things, ideas, relationships that unhelpfully anchor us in the past, and trying to reframe and transform them through this cycle of conserving spiritual and physical energy.
This has the promise of preserving our spirits in readiness for the reawakening of energy in the Spring.
So “Welcome” to the winter solstice, because we know it only gets lighter from here!
Enquiries about the Interfaith Network: executive@interfaithnetwork.org.au or 8774 7662.
