The returning of the light

 

 7:21 this morning from my bedroom window. It is only seventeen days since our Winter Solstice here in the UK, but you can feel in your bones, your skin, your subconscious that the days are already lengthening in a way that you can feel. And that return of the light is beautiful, uplifting and powerful. 

It makes you see why so many ancient civilisations made such celebrations in the depths of winter. And when do we have our biggest annual celebration? It is all very deep in our bones. I used to read as a child that these solstice and dawn celebrations were to make sure that the sun kept rising and the seasons kept on their inevitable cycle, but I think that makes our ancestors sound a bit dumb and I don't think that is how to look at it. The knowledge that the hardest coldest days were over and that light was coming back was plenty enough reason to celebrate, even if you never doubted its return.

The emotions connected with the return of light are easy to understand but worth thinking about. You know that the coldest hardest days are disappearing, no matter how much you like winter. You also know that all the joys of Spring are just around the corner and that the green spikes pushing up through the ground will soon show colour (in this order for my area: white snowdrops, yellow and purple crocus, butter-yellow daffodils). You also feel that your plans or intentions for the coming seasons are going into motion. You will finally get to visit that distant relative or friend on the far side of the world; You will get that allotment finally in order; you will sell up and move to the country; you will get rid of that deadbeat partner; you will get out the paints and canvas that have sat in your closet for too many years. It is a time of promise and hope, and the light is its first outrider. 

There is also a simple animal joy (or maybe it is too deeply embedded to even be thought of as an emotion), the simple joy that we feel the year turning and the light increasing. Like every organism, we know that the season is changing and we cannot but respond, especially if we spend at least some time outdoors where the light can bathe us. In fact - quite remarkably - there are some simple receptors in our eyes which were not discovered until 2007(!) whose function is simply to track the level of light around us, tracking diurnal and seasonal changes (find out more here: Photoreceptive ganglia). Their only function is to tell us "how light is it out there/". And right now they are sending their happy message to our brains, bodies and spirit. 

And it feels wonderful