Solstice down under

The shortest day of the year.

The solar minimum.

When I am further from the sun that I will be for 365 days, in the darkest days of winter.

A former US president famously quipped: You can only appreciate the highest mountain when you have been in the darkest valley. 

And so it is with appreciation that I turn to face the shortest days of the year.

The natural seasonal fluctuations reflect the viscitudes of life.

I can't choose what happens, but I can choose how I respond. 

I can choose what I make it mean.

Sometimes I know, it seems that circumstances are intense.

My experience, a function of my perspective, is a choice. 

What do I make the situation mean? When I choose to look for the clouds, I see plenty of clouds. At the same time, when I choose to look for silver linings, I see more of those.

The objective view may not be different, but the subjective view allows the beholder to see beauty when others don't.

So today, on the shortest day of the year, I see the possibility.

I see the promise.

Because there is darkness, there must be light.

Soon the solar father's strong warm fingers will reach down over the southern land. 

And I trust that, like seasons of nature, the seasons of my life will ebb and flow. This day, one day, will be a memory, and I'll look back and see myself, my family, my life in a way I can't grasp right now.

So I choose, right now, to appreciate the beauty, the smiles and the silver linings.



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