Solstice Born

 Solstice Born

    Today I begin the last year of my thirties.  My son, Will, says you're not old until you're forty, so only Dad is old.  I couldn't agree more.  I have grown to love and appreciate being a solstice baby., though when I was younger, I thought being a new year's baby sounded way cooler.  My mom was induced ten days early because Dr. Lester didn't want to be called in to deliver me on Christmas.  A healthy eight pound baby, my mom cried when she had to take me, her first baby girl, back to the hospital for Christmas.  I had developed jaundice and need to wear some sweet shades and sit under some bright lights wearing nothing but my diaper.

    

    I suppose this was the start of my love affair with light.  As a child, I would hear people saying that December 21st, my birthday, was the shortest day of the year.  I felt so jaded!  Why was my birthday shorter than everyone else's?  Later, I felt silly when I learned that my birthday actually lasted for twenty-four hours, the same as everyone's.  There was just less daylight, my mom explained.

    So now, when people mention me being a winter solstice baby, I smile and tell them, "Well, I like to think of having my birthday on the shortest day of the year to mean I brought the light when I was born.  Each day after my birthday gets lighter and lighter.  The sunlight stays out a little longer."  And in a way, I did bring light.  Light to my parents, who had two boys and dreamed of a little girl.  Light to my Grandma Proehl, her first granddaughter after a stream of five grandsons.  Though she didn't live to see my first birthday and I don't remember her at all, I believe a part of her lives in me; that she passed it on when she spoiled me and held me any chance she could.

  

    But in all seriousness, I know that only my savior, Jesus Christ, truly brings light.   Each day, I find a few quite moments to spend with Him.  One of the daily devotion websites I turn to is Blessed is She.  In Susan Spencer's post today, she writes:

The winter of waiting is almost past, and He is almost here. Let us arise to meet Him as He comes this Christmas. Bring Him all of the weight of this past year—all of your joy, suffering, and work. Imagine yourself kneeling down beside His waiting manger and offer it all to Him along with your heart.

Arise, His beloved, His beautiful one, and come and see the coming Newborn King.

In the midst of this very dark year, I see so much joy and light and hope.  I pray you see it with me, and that we all might catch a glimpse of that "Christmas star" tonight.  And as I strive to "offer it all to Him," and come to know God more deeply, I feel myself twinkling a little brighter and growing a bit closer to becoming all He has intended me to be.  If you are reading this, it is because you, too, are a twinkling star in my life.  

    On this cold winter solstice 2020 my cup is warm and overflowing.  I'll leave us all with a little advice from the day's DailyOM article delivered to my inbox.

Do not be afraid to venture joyfully out into the cold and the snow as you may have when you were a child.  A tingling and reddened nose is a small price to pay for a clear mind and invigorated soul. If your body articulates a desire to rest, give yourself permission to spend your free time reading, writing in your journal, daydreaming, engaging in artistic pursuits, playing board games, working a puzzle or meditating.

May this winter solstice clear your mind, invigorate your soul, and give you rest.