It’s a cold, but wonderful way to start the year.

I was on the look out for a beautiful sunrise this morning to share my way of celebrating Solstice with you. But it was so cloudy that it just changed from orange warehouse shine (yuck!) to gray overcast morning light (also yuck, but better than that artificial shine we get all night since someone near us decided to start growing roses).

So we’ll have to settle for last night’s sunset, which was just magical.

At our home we do not really celebrate Solstice, but it is important to me.
The solarfestivities are my own little reminders of the greater cycles of life. Wintersolstice for me is the start of a new year. I also celebrate the new calender year like everybody else does and I even make resolutions but Wintersolstice holds special meaning for me in a more spiritual way.
The cycle of the Sun for me represents the way ups and downs are all part of life. So today I am reminded of the way the sun always returns and grows stronger again after a period of darkness and weakening. I always feel a bit lighter of heart after Solstice.
It is also a reminder that there is no quick way to change things. Wintersolstice means we’re slowly heading to lighter periods again, but the dark days aren’t over until Imbolc (1st of Februari).
I really needed to remember this today. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t feel renewed and clean and over stuff this morning, but waiting for the sun to rise reminded me to take it slow. Like the days growing a few minutes longer every day, we can work on bettering ourselves, just one small step after another…

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I saved this post as a draft and left to interview a DJ. When I got out off his dark studio the sun was shining and the sky was blue! So I took a little detour.
I drove home after a brisk walk in a small nature park and felt so grounded en refreshed. I can’t imagine a better gift for Solstice!

It is getting dark here very early these days (this was 4 pm today), but we do get some lovely sunsets!

:: outside

:: inside

(I’m sorry for not posting Friday, I was very busy and ended the day with a terrible headache…)

Although it’s usually raining here, It does snow around here sometimes (like yesterday):

Not my favorite month, to be honest, but some days there is beauty to be found…

So, it seems I’m not cut out for these give-aways. Now I have four lovely ladies who would like a hat. And I don’t want to disappoint any of them, since it means so much to me that someone even would like to have something I made.
I thought up something else and all four of you should have received an email about this by now.

The rose is totally unrelated. It’s in the neighbours garden. I love the intense red against the gray of the barn.

I do have a lot more to share, but I’m very busy. My publisher asked to send him my manuscript again, as soon as possible. But when I read through it a few weeks ago I found some mistakes. Which I (of course) didn’t bother to correct, since I thought it was already being processed by an editor.
You get the drift. I don’t want to send it off like this, so I have to read through it again tonight, find those mistakes, correct them and send out the manuscript before midnight (if possible)…

Phew, and here I was thinking it was so very easy to publish a simple novel…