Winter Solstice is my New Year’s Eve. My Auld Lang Syne. My nostalgia – the mix of the happy and the sad, swirling together in my heart.

I don’t know about you, but this year has been a bit bleak for me personally. A lot of transition, which naturally brings a lot of grief. More death and loss and mourning than I’m used to in any given year.

I have sometimes felt like I was walking in a cave, stumbling over unseen obstacles, fingertips brushing hard rock walls, only the light of a candle to help me find my way forward.

Some years are like that.

Because of the year I’ve experienced, celebrating the Winter Solstice is more meaningful and important to me, and here’s why I’m looking forward to it. Maybe it can help you, too!

What is the Solstice?

The winter solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year. The winter solstice marks the beginning of the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun reaches its most southerly position.

Having been through *many* “dark nights of the soul” throughout my lifetime, I appreciate the rest and reflection of this time of year. Acknowledging the eternal partnership of light and darkness and our place within it. The cycle of life and death, reflected in the seasons.

Hope in knowing that the light will return, even when it feels like darkness will last forever. THIS is what I celebrate. Even when I have felt most in the dark, I have seen glimmers of light.

Winter Solstice Reminds Me That Everything Cycles

We are taught to think about life in a linear way. Start a project to finish it. Be productive. Move in a straight line.

Trauma and grief recovery does not work like this. LIFE does not work like this.

If there was a finish line, I would have found it. I spent many, many years searching for one.

Trauma and PTSD and grief recovery are all cycles. Not ONE large cycle, but a course of many small cycles.

Every time I go through a grieving cycle, whether it’s from past or present circumstances, I feel like a Phoenix.

In these cycles, I’m submerged in a fire of emotions. My bones and cells and everything I’ve known about this circumstance is turned to ash.

And then I rise again. Renewed. Reborn. Not carrying the trauma and grief from the past, because I let it burn through processing it. Letting it cycle through, so that I am not destroyed.

I am grateful for these cycles in my life, because they help me remember that darkness does not last forever. There is always hope, even when we don’t feel it.

Winter Solstice Reminds Me That I Can Let Go and Be Renewed

The shortest day and the darkest night help me to go through a process of letting go of what needs to be released and receiving what’s waiting for me.

The first way I do this is to choose a word for the year. For 2024, the word was REST.

Now at first glance, this might seem like a great word – relaxing, even.

Having experience with tricky words for the year, I figured that there was more to this word than simply having plenty of time to chill out.

I was right. I needed a lot of rest because the circumstances, deaths, loss, and transitions of the year were chaotic and lasted months (not hours, not days, not weeks – MONTHS).

And I had more resting to do than simply lying on my couch (which I LOVE to do). I learned how to rest in despair, and rest in faith, and rest in hope, and rest in uncertainty. All tough things, but GOOD, especially when going through cycles of trauma and grief recovery, and becoming who I was always meant to be.

I talk more about my Winter Solstice Word for the Year ritual here ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

Winter Solstice Reminds Me That Light Shines in Darkness

Like Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry wrote some amazing poetry connecting our human emotional experience with the realities of nature.

There’s nothing like poetry to ease pain.

This poem reminds me that sometimes darkness needs to be experienced on its own.

That there is value in the darkness.

That sometimes it feels like night will last forever…so why not get to know it? Instead of pushing it away, or trying to ignore it, or avoiding it, or all of the other ways we try to escape the darkness – why not lean into it?

Here’s one of my favorite pieces that I return to every Winter Solstice:

More About the Solstice and Hope and Grief

At times like these, it can feel radical to practice hope, and I wrote about that here – Practicing Radical Hope

Grief doesn’t take a holiday, and I wrote about that, too – For Those Grieving Over the Holidays

And last but not least, Release & Renew with a Solstice Ritual

The Light Will Return

Happy Yule!

Need a Travel Companion in the Darkness? Reach Out ~

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