The Winter Solstice

 Today we're celebrating the Winter Solstice. Although it marks the beginning of winter, I look at it as marking the beginning of Spring. There may be lots of bad weather between now and spring flowers, but today is the shortest day of the year, so starting tomorrow the days will begin getting longer. That's a good thing for me. As may of you know, I suffer from seasonal depression, sometimes referred to as SAD ( seasonal affective disorder). SAD seems to be related to a lack of light, so longer days are good for my well being.

This year for your viewing pleasure, I arranged a total lunar eclipse of the full moon to coincide with the Solstice. This is the first such event in over 400 years and won't occur again for another 400 or so. If you missed it last night, mark your calendars for the next one.

 Rob and I debated last night on whether to stay up for the eclipse, but after a long day we were tired and went to sleep. At 1:34 this morning, Samba came over to my side of the bed, whimpered and licked my hand. I thought she needed to go out, since she's on prednisone she sometimes needs to pee during the night. I got up, grabbed my robe and we tiptoed out the front door. I opened the gate for her and she walked down to the driveway and stood there looking at me. I didn't know what she wanted, but I looked up and saw the eclipse under way. Samba and I stood on the porch and watched it. It was amazing.

This year we sponsored a Winter Solstice swap and today is the day. Unfortunately, due to bad weather conditions in various parts of the world, some of the packages are late arriving, but should be at their destinations within a few days. The ones I've seen so far are really neat. Everyone did a good job and getting a special gift on the shortest day of the year feels good, doesn't it?

 Happy Winter Solstice to all our friends. Take a minute today to look around at the beauty of nature and enjoy the advance toward Spring.