Finally: Light at The End of the Tunnel

Looking Forward to Winter Solstice is Giving Me Life

This has been a long, tough year. Our lives have been upended by this pandemic. It has taken away our daily routines, prevented easy social gatherings, and mutated celebrations. These events are those that keep us feeling safe and supported, so it’s no surprise that many of us have been feeling like we are treading water alone. What’s worse is we are becoming weary and rescue seemed unlikely.

Probably the most difficult for me, though, is the sense of impending doom. It seems to stem from feeling that we can’t plan for the future. Will we be able to go on summer vacation in 2021? Can we hold graduation parties, weddings, or 4th of July celebrations? Travel to see distant family? Consequently, we have no events to look forward to and no markers to break up the monotony of working from home, schooling from home, and feeling unsafe during some of the simplest tasks.

With this in mind, I wanted to share with you a few things I and my family are doing to give us things to look forward to in December.

I am part of a fairly small and localized family–most of us live in the southwest quarter of Missouri–so we are able to do some things that other families would not be able to pull off without some risky travel.

For one thing, both Mema, Pawpa and G’pa (we have already lost several grandparents, sadly) have near enough drive times that they can motor through without having to stop at public rest stops along the way. So we are quarantining ourselves for 10 days before our 4-household family gathering. One of my siblings has a large barn that we plan to decorate with twinkle lights and heaters. Then we’ll each bring our own tables to use as our social distancing home-base if we wish to have a sip of Christmas cheer.

If we get up from our household home-base to socialize (or scooch close to a heater!), we must be masked. Then we’re going to do our family gift exchange and go our separate ways. We’ll be sort of outside, with lots of air flow and masks, and those of us who aren’t essential workers are self-quarantining for the recommended 10 days. This way we can at least see each other open gifts and have a couple Smile-With-Our-Eyes laughs for our holiday gathering.

As for my household family unit, I have planned a few special meals around the Winter Solstice and Christmas celebrations. We are also exchanging lots of warm and cozy gifts and activity-based presents to make sure we have some fun things to do while we hunker down for the rest of December and first half of January. Puzzles, books, and games are much higher on the list than usual for our holiday haul.

I also plan to get the family out of the house to view the planetary convergence on the Solstice, Monday, Dec. 21. And we will institute our new practice of burning your negative thoughts from the year and writing a wish for the new year. This practice involves writing down all of the hurt, fears, or frustrations from the year until you begin to feel “lighter.” Then crumple the paper and throw them into the Yule fire or bonfire to release those negative energies. While watching the fire, you can then write down your wishes for the new year to set your intentions. This Winter Solstice ritual is discussed in this article at number 13, but there are many variations. You can learn more about Pagan traditions for the Winter Solstice from this Teen Vogue article.

I love the idea of celebrating the Solstice even more than usual this year. After such a trying time, we can all use a reason to focus on releasing the negative from 2020. Even better, the point of the Winter Solstice is to celebrate the return of the sun with sunshine hours growing longer each day. The idea of thinking forward to a better 2021 and what might give us hope is so fitting for this day of reflection.

Our family also celebrates Christmas, in a very secular way, with cookies and gifts and songs and festive drinks. Fires in the fire pit when it isn’t too cold outside and gas fires in the fireplace when the weather is miserable are also heavily weighted in my Yuletide plans. I bought a large box of cocoa for the kids and planned a tiki party for us in our basement bar for one night.

As I have alluded in previous posts, I have been making good use of our bar during the pandemic. My favorite recent discovery is a perfect inclusion in this post as it’s name means light: The Lumiere. It is a sweet/tart herbal delight with gin and St. Germaine.

If you need me over the next two weeks, I’ll be curled up under a blanket, with a book and a Lumiere cocktail. Cheers to a hopefully lighter 2021 and to receiving a vaccine before Summer Solstice!