Santa Lucia
December 13 is not only Lucia day here in Sweden, but it also the darkest day of the year. Even though solstice is this year on the 21st of December at 11.02 CET, last Sunday was the darkest day of 2020. This is also correlating with the lunar calendar. What nature invites us to do around this time of the year is slow down. As you can see when you visit a forest, nothing is active or in state of minimal energy consumption. From the book Living and working in line with nature: "Letting go, leaving behind, walk along. This is not the time to start a new project, you will not find the energy out in nature (daylight and other external energy providers). Even urgent matters should rest and take them up again as from the second week of January. The experience of the solstice is essential, because you become aware of the fact that daylight is returning. After solstice between Christmas and January 6 follows a time of silence and meditation. In this time of the year it is about understanding and accepting the autonomous process of life. The time of not-knowing." My own reflection from this: I wonder why we make these promises to ourselves and others around the year about the upcoming year? Should we consider doing that later in January? Here in Åmot, days are now extremely short. There enough daylight between 0930 and 1430 to read a newspaper. It is easy to grasp and understand above text. How is it in other parts of the world, more south I mean? Is it smart to bypass this process by having a lot of unnatural light or travelling south of the equator? Are we birds or trees? Birds flying to Africa or trees resiliently standing and waiting? What do you think?