Happy Winter Solstice!

I know this space has been silent for nearly a month.  Although I haven't been posting, I have been cherishing time spent with my loved ones, time spent stepping into other lives through movies and books, afternoons and evenings passed with a combination of snow-gazing, baking, cooking, knitting and time spent celebrating the normal days and the special ones....you know, LIFE!

I plan to return to the blog very soon.  I've been amassing photos, stories and finished objects to share.  But, for now, I am going to hold tight to this memory of a winter solstice spent at my friend Jill's Unitarian Universalist church.  Tonight's service was dedicated to acknowledging the value of the darkness and of the returning light.

This year, I am appreciating the darkness and the winter in a new way.  I am relishing the season that inspires me, and others around me, to bring people together, to host at home, to hold still with a book, to knit under blankets and to s l o w down.  I need a season to remind me of the importance of those things.

And then....and then I need the light and warmth to return! I need to dig in the dirt and begin the work of restocking my pantry with all manor of preserves.  But, for now, the memory of a packed house of candlelit faces is what I am digging.

Wishing you just the right balance of darkness and light throughout the coming year.