The Winter Solstice

Last week I went from being a Cheechako to being a Sourdough, meaning that I have now spent a year in the North. I join a long list of people like Robert Service, and Jack London and Pierre Berton who have come and found the beauty of living up here.

Tonight / tomorrow night are the longest nights of the year, the Winter solstice. Unlike "outside" (down south,) up here this really means something. The sun rose this morning at 10:09 and set this afternoon at 3:47. We're moments away from Christmas, and oddly enough, despite how much I look forward to winging South (and East) to Montreal to meet up with my wife and children, I am sad to leave this beautiful land at the moment when it is at its most haughting and lovely.

There is something of special energy that charges the air and people, and fires are lit, and lights plugged in, and the Christmas tree gleaming means so much more when the nights are so long and black.