At the beginning of every holiday season, as we begin the dark slide into winter, we gather those we love around us and tell each other for which we are grateful. We then cover our homes in lights, making them welcoming beacons for those who must travel during this cold, benighted season.

For the following weeks, we huddle around our fires and pray that this time, like every time before it, the days will cease becoming shorter and the nights getting longer, that this natural course of things will again reverse itself. At its apex, though, that long night lingers, for three long days, and if you go out on the cold evenings it’s not hard to imagine our ancestors huddled in the freezing temperatures and waiting for the end.

And like a child crowning from its mother, three hard days later the sun stays in the sky just a little bit longer than it did before. Whether this is called Christmas, or Dongzhi, or Yuletide, we all recognize it as the mercy of the universe in allowing us to live a little longer, to grow and to celebrate in the face of the worst conditions. No wonder a short time later we celebrate the New Year, that we’ve turned a corner and can celebrate a fresh beginning, a time to reinvent ourselves and set new goals in the face of lengthening rays of the sun. We are, again, born in hope.

Merry Christmas to you and yours, and a Happy New Year.

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