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capri0mni(Official report from the national weather service, 10:39, pm, December 19th, 2004):
Sunday night: Cloudy with occasional snow showers. Quite windy. Low 26F. Winds NNW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 60%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
Monday: Windy. Becoming mostly sunny later with any flurries or snow showers ending by noontime. Colder. High 32F. Winds NW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 30%.
(High tomorrow of 32? BRRRRR!! I think I'll spend the day in bed curled up around/with Manda-bear)
Okay, so now the Weather Personalities on the local TV news are all trilling about "Will we have a white Christmas?" and mock-mourning that we probably will not. (Believe it or not, for the 8-going--on-9 years that I've been here, there has always been at least one day in winter with enough snow on the ground to look like something, but it's usually been in February, or late January, at the earliest).
The way I see it, whether you are Christian, Wiccan, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Shinto, Atheist, or a Discworlder, this Solstice, season-changing, thing is all about pausing, and taking stock of where you are in life -- mentally, spiritually, and physically.
After all, if to be in life is to be in the swing of things, this is the time when the pendulum is one extreme of its arc; kinetic energy becomes potential, and, for the briefest of moments, there is a pause before it becomes kinetic again.
So now is the time, for as long as there have been human beings living in the northern hemisphere, * that we count our blessings, atone for our wrong doings, admonish our children that they better not pout, hug our grandmas, and exchange gifts. After all, now is the time when everything is in potential, and what we do now must surely have an effect how life swings from now on.
Wishing your world looked like picture from a story written 150 ago, across 5,000 miles of ocean, doesn't help anything. Especially when you beg for snow on December 24, and then curse it on December 26th.
Celebrating your home for the holidays, should be really celebrating the beauty of your home as it is, for the holidays, green or white.
(meanwhile, Father Wind is howling outside my house right now... a few moments ago, I heard him throw a tree branch at my roof -- he's really kicking up his heels).
* In the southern Hemisphere, this usually happens in June, of course, but then those silly Europeans imported their calendars without recallibrating them to match the seasons. I've heard rumors that even Australian malls decorate with fake snow... you can not tell me that is not silly! ;-)
Sunday night: Cloudy with occasional snow showers. Quite windy. Low 26F. Winds NNW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 60%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
Monday: Windy. Becoming mostly sunny later with any flurries or snow showers ending by noontime. Colder. High 32F. Winds NW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 30%.
(High tomorrow of 32? BRRRRR!! I think I'll spend the day in bed curled up around/with Manda-bear)
Okay, so now the Weather Personalities on the local TV news are all trilling about "Will we have a white Christmas?" and mock-mourning that we probably will not. (Believe it or not, for the 8-going--on-9 years that I've been here, there has always been at least one day in winter with enough snow on the ground to look like something, but it's usually been in February, or late January, at the earliest).
The way I see it, whether you are Christian, Wiccan, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Shinto, Atheist, or a Discworlder, this Solstice, season-changing, thing is all about pausing, and taking stock of where you are in life -- mentally, spiritually, and physically.
After all, if to be in life is to be in the swing of things, this is the time when the pendulum is one extreme of its arc; kinetic energy becomes potential, and, for the briefest of moments, there is a pause before it becomes kinetic again.
So now is the time, for as long as there have been human beings living in the northern hemisphere, * that we count our blessings, atone for our wrong doings, admonish our children that they better not pout, hug our grandmas, and exchange gifts. After all, now is the time when everything is in potential, and what we do now must surely have an effect how life swings from now on.
Wishing your world looked like picture from a story written 150 ago, across 5,000 miles of ocean, doesn't help anything. Especially when you beg for snow on December 24, and then curse it on December 26th.
Celebrating your home for the holidays, should be really celebrating the beauty of your home as it is, for the holidays, green or white.
(meanwhile, Father Wind is howling outside my house right now... a few moments ago, I heard him throw a tree branch at my roof -- he's really kicking up his heels).
* In the southern Hemisphere, this usually happens in June, of course, but then those silly Europeans imported their calendars without recallibrating them to match the seasons. I've heard rumors that even Australian malls decorate with fake snow... you can not tell me that is not silly! ;-)
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-19 10:43 pm (UTC)Don't underestimate the value of weather in tying in our mental state to the world around us. People may not recognize how they react to seasonal changes or why they want certain changes, but sunlight and temperature and all sorts of climate features affect how people think and act. That's what ties people into nature, makes them a part of where they live rather than just a visitor there. A changing of season isn't an abstract, internal thing, but a changing of weather, a changing of the world around us, and how we change with it - it seems very natural to want a symbolic recognition of that in the weather as well as in one's own mind. Having the winter solstice (or most people's approximation of it) marked with the symbol winter weather is a beautiful form of celebration, the sign that your internal meditations are connected to the natural ones. Celebrating a season change when the weather hasn't changed to correspond with the new season is a cognitive jolt, a subconscious message that your internal clock is out of sync with the world around you.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 05:56 am (UTC)(I love snow at all times during the winter. Why have it cold if you can't get snow? I should probably move to Minnesota, but it gets too damn hot there in the summer.)
no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 09:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 09:55 am (UTC)But to beg for a white Christmas on December 24, and then curse it on December 26th, is just insulting to the snow spirits.
For the record -- I like snow, too. It reflects the sunlight as it comes through the windows, and my rooms are filled with light from floor to ceiling.
I just chafe at the cultural insistance that I peg my level of holiday jollity on someone else's idea of "picture perfect"
no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 01:51 pm (UTC)Note: this post is partly a response to a story I saw on TV yesterday, about "extreme" Christmas decorations. One fellow in Lousianna put a snow machine on his roof because, "you just can't have Christmas without real snow."
And then there are the Christmas cards that show the Holy Family in a manger surrounded by snow...
Celebrating a season change when the weather hasn't changed to correspond with the new season is a cognitive jolt, a subconscious message that your internal clock is out of sync with the world around you.
Well, I do agree that in our culture we've thrown our internal clocks out of sync with the rest of the world. But the real seasonal change is all about the changing light of the year (The fact that I, even this far south, have less then four hours of daylight left today).
But so many of us work in buildings without windows, under flourescent lights. And when the sun does go down, our houses are surrounded by security lights that come on as soon as the sky begins to darken. So most people go through their entire lives never really experiencing true darkness.
When something as big and powerful as the sun becomes irrelevent, you know something is out of whack.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 05:46 pm (UTC)Yeah, I never understood those people either. Besides, snow is best during mid-January through February so that we can get SNOW DAYS! ;-)
Whee!
Date: 2004-12-21 05:03 am (UTC)I always suspected teachers were kids at heart...
Re: Whee!
Date: 2004-12-21 05:50 am (UTC)Happy Yule!
Re: Whee!
Date: 2004-12-21 07:17 am (UTC)And thank you. Glad Yule to you, too!
no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 01:28 pm (UTC)soory, didn't know,
Date: 2004-12-20 01:53 pm (UTC)white solstice
Date: 2004-12-20 12:25 pm (UTC)Right now, it's 11 degrees here in chilly Massachusetts. Brrrrr! My car door was frozen shut this morning, and even a full body slam wouldn't budge it. I ended up pouring some of my hot tea along the seam, and I left the door open while I brushed off the 4" of snow so I wouldn't get frozen out with the engine running. That would be bad!
Re: white solstice
Date: 2004-12-20 01:27 pm (UTC)especially without your tea... :-)