The dark time has come. The earth, in her great dance around the sun, has come inevitably to the solstice, the time of extremes, of distance, of darkness and light. In our hemisphere, we experience this time as one of cold darkness, of shortening days and lengthening nights. The earth is tipping, from our perspective, further and further away from the sun. We wait, but the moment when the darkness is greatest is not entirely predictable. The spinning dance of the earth continues, but for one brief instant, when the axis of the Earth’s rotation crosses the line through the center of our orbit around the sun, the tipping stops, and for a moment, we seem to stand suspended in space, pulsing with potential movement and ongoing life. Then, like a child’s top that almost fell over, we are saved by the spin and lifted up again towards the light.
On the evening of Wednesday, December 21, from 7-8pm, we join together to celebrate this great pause. Together, while sharing food and drink, we will toast to the coming year and reflect on all that has passed since the last great pause. Please email Rev. Jane at minister@channingmc.org to RSVP and to let her know if you would like to gather in-person or virtually. (If we meet virtually, I invite you to bring with you your own food and drink. If we meet in-person, I will provide the drinks and cookies!)