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Winter Sunrises
By Elizabeth Beechwood
On the darkest days
The glorious sunrise shouts
And still we persist!
Winter solstice marks the beginning of our journey around The Wheel together. It’s a mysterious dark time here in the Northern Hemisphere, when Nature challenges us to turn inward. Inward to our homes, inward to our bodies, inward to our minds and thoughts.
In my part of the Pacific Northwest, winter is marked by long stretches of blustery rain punctuated with cold, clear breaks in the weather. Many people find comfort in starry winter skies, chunky knitted blankets, and twinkling lights. But it’s during these breaks that I find comfort in something different: the winter sunrise. The sunrise is especially glorious on these mornings; the sky is banded with robin’s egg blue, house finch blush, and warbler yellows and greens. The bare branches of the birches outside my window are strikingly dark against the fleeting colors in the sky.
What is it that makes sunrise so special at this time of year? Besides the fact that more of us are awake to witness it? It has a magical quality not matched during the summer. The bright colors sweep steadily through the cold air. The chickadee’s morning greetings ring out like bells through this liminal moment. Our spirits are lifted as we witness Nature and all her features persisting, doing what they know to do during this cold time.
As we head into this darkest turn of The Wheel, look for those glorious winter sunrises and remember to persist in all that is important to you.
Elizabeth Beechwood:
When I write, I start with regular people with regular lives … but then something strange happens. Whether it’s fiction, fantasy, magical realism or genre-bending, you can count on something just a little peculiar from my stories. I’m also a certified Oregon Naturalist, so the natural world and its many aspects pop up in my writing frequently. Please join me on The Wheel, a quarterly newsletter, as we take another spin around the sun and explore the seasons. You can sign up on my website: elizabethbeechwood.com.