Holidays

The Return of The Light

Today is the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. As of tomorrow, the days start getting longer, and the nights shorter. 

Having grown up in Venezuela, I had no awareness of the winter and summer solstices. In the tropics, there is no great variation in the length of days throughout the year. We only have a vague awareness that in December, dusk comes about 6:00 pm instead of 6:30 pm. 

But I actually find deep meaning in the solstice. 

Reflections on holiday gift-giving

Over the past few weeks, I read a couple provocative articles on the subject of holiday gift-giving and consumerism.

The first was from Paul Jarvis, who writes a newsletter I read weekly. In his last newsletter, he shared how he doesn't participate in the holiday tradition of gift-giving. Instead, for him and his wife, Christmas Day is a quiet day of resting. 

There was something about his perspective that really appealed to me.