Here we are observing the day with the most hours of darkness. Winter Solstice comes every year, but I’ve been hearing more people talking about it this year. Maybe that’s due to a year marked with so much darkness in so many lives across the globe, from the ravages of COVID19 to unemployment to increasing levels of hunger to uncertainty about what’s to come.

With this  rhythm in nature, the dark hours will turn toward increasing light. At this time of year I like to turn to the Essenes, people who lived centuries ago and sought to live in accordance with nature. Their studies and views broaden my understanding of what this time means.

An excerpt from The Essene Book of Days – “The ancient peoples used this time of the ‘longest night’ to focus on the power of darkness. Not the negative image of darkness, but the richness of the unknown, dark, fertile, deep part in each of us wherein our intuitive, creative forces abide. In modern times, it is a time for owning one’s shadow, so as to transform any negative energy associated with it into energy of creation and psychic ability. We must accept and know our Darkness before we can fully know our Light.

For those of us embracing Tai Chi, this is a time to embrace our Yin side, to reflect and nourish this aspect of our beings through our practices. We seek to balance our Yin and Yang elements and strive to be in sync with nature.

From this day forward the hours of sunlight will start to increase. The darkness will turn into light. Let that give us hope for the days ahead.