The very fact of Winter makes us take a different stance to our plans, our living. Winter changes our writing, our reading, our comings and goings. I read Winter themed poems in college where Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson made the snow the central character of the work.

Lately my husband and myself send Solstice Cards rather than more traditional Holiday cards. He takes the photo, I write the text. It has become our way of finding optimism when the light is the least. The beauty of winter itself is celebrated and rewarded with hope.

Playwrighting too takes the bare bones of words and brings light to them. As the play goes from script to actual production it takes on a warmth and extension of life. We cannot deny the chill of a play left unproduced. It needs the pulse of acceptance to truly come alive. The work requires the public pulse of acceptance to truly come alive. The coming together of a piece is its own solstice evening bringing the promise of Light.

Celebrations around Solstice are our way of saying to the vast Universe:” Thank you for reassuring Us of the continuity of Time and Space.” We have had a Past, a Present, and with the coming of Solstice We cue a Future to join that chain. Our hands can dig into the cold know and know that in six months grass shoots will be there.

© Christine Emmert. All rights reserved. May be republished with full attribution to the writer.