Reflecting on Solstice / Soulstice
By: Katthe Wolf, Chief Executive Officer
The winter solstice is upon us — Sunday, December 22. This year, Hanukkah—otherwise known as the Jewish Festival of Lights—happens to fall on the same day as the winter solstice. (The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar which means each month is 28 days, so dates don’t line up with the regular calendar year to year.) During Hanukkah, we celebrate the miracle of having enough when, previously, that didn't seem physically possible. For eight consecutive nights, we light candles to dispel darkness and restore our faith that things can work out, even when the situation seems hopeless. One of the songs we sing on Hanukkah is “Nes Gadol Haha Sham,” or “a big miracle happened here.”
Winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, and many people celebrate it as a return of light. Every day after this day is slightly longer, just as every day before contains a little less light. The idea that light is returning gets us through the days ahead. This is important because, paradoxically, the solstice marks the beginning of winter. While light may be returning, the snow and cold weather in the northern hemisphere is just getting started. So, celebrating solstice is celebrating faith in the future; it’s celebrating hanging in there for the change that will inevitably come.
The word “solstice” is from the Latin “sol” (sun) and past participle of “sistere” (to stand still, make, or be firm). Solstice is the day the sun stands still. Twice a year, the sun stands and stops to reflect. Solstice is a fractal boundary—a liminal space betwixt and between fall and winter, light and darkness, beginnings and endings; a moment in time, flanked by all the other moments; indistinguishable and meaningful, nonetheless.
For me, celebrating solstice is about leaning into what is. It’s accepting the cold and the darkness, and then transcending it by going inside. I’m not just talking about cocooning in our homes, but going deep into ourselves and finding peace in that solitude, untethered to the trappings of the material world. We know as humans we’re generally a social species, and that other people are crucial to our happiness and sense of safety and security—family, friends, and community.
Solstice, like so many other sacred days, reminds us that we are one and that each of us is one with all that is and ever was. Each of us is enough. The opportunity is to sit in silence and darkness; to tune-in to the sound of your heartbeat; to imagine your interior space (the space of your soul); to know that your internal universe is the universe; and, then, to merge with that. In this way, perhaps we turn solstice into soulstice—a time for our soul to stand still, to stop and reflect, and to stand firm for what is to come. To await miracles. In our souls, we find a wellspring of faith, a beautiful radiant diamond at the center of our selves. Touch that. Be that moment as the foundation of our strong human family.
Then (perhaps), onto the other celebrations of the season!
Wishing you and yours joy as we fete the end of 2019 and move on to welcome 2020.
