Darkest Night Passed - Now which way do we go?

Longest night is behind us –Solstice celebrated. 

I lit a myriad of candles around the ladies on the hearth of my faux fireplace, nee altar.  I laid out a few fancy snacks on the coffee table: caviar, tapenade, mushroom pate, crackers and an iced bottle of champagne. 

I sat before the flames, sipped, and nibbled. I reflected on my 2010 with a pen upon my journal’s pages: reviewed my past, considered my present, and drafted my goals for 2011. I won’t finalize them until the new moon plus 1 - January 5^th.  
 
Just as people have planted by the phases of the moon, so I plant the seeds of my aspirations for 2011 for maximum growth. I consider myself an above ground crop best planted during a waxing moon.

The rough draft needs work, and I’ll hone it over the coming days. It’s a combination of goals and bucket list - Some are long range, some are short; some are serious and some not so serious.

With darkest night behind me, the almost imperceptible lengthening of days invigorates me.  It’s a heady feeling to visualize striding into the growing light and lengthening days of a new year knowing that each seed grows according to the care and attention I give it. 

I intend to tend this particular garden better than I did in 2010.


© Perle Champion

Star Light, Star Bright... – The Geminds are Coming

 I remember when I was a child in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Daddy was stationed on a radar site high up on the desert mesa.  I’d lie out on the lawn on warm summer nights, doing nothing, just looking up at the night sky.  Every night, the moon would rise and stroll from horizon to horizon; she would wax and wane; and when she was but a sliver in the sky, the stars would shine brilliant above me.

If I watched long enough, some nights I was gifted with a shooting star.  Someone told me it was not really a star, but it was a star to me.  I would send up a fervent wish for it to grant followed by the childish chant:  “Star light, star bright, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight. 

I live in the city now, and stars cannot compete with the city smog and lights.  Still, I can see a bit of sky from my mom’s back yard in the suburbs that is not obliterated by the distant city lights.  I could sit for hours and just stare up at the sky.  The 14th, the Geminids are coming - so many shooting stars to wish upon.  

At its peak the Geminids can produce 60 shooting stars an hour or one every 30 seconds depending on your source, and peaks December 13–14.  Broken fragments from a pseudo asteroid-comet called 3200 Phaethon with a mysterious composition create the Geminids, which become more intense every year.  2010 is a good year to see the them as the moon won't be full enough to detract from the meteor shower visibility. 

So to all y’all out there, gather your wishes and go out after midnight when the moon has set and wish upon a shooting star or two or three or more Geminid shooting stars.

© Perle Champion