The news of our country is staggering, and it is December, a time of gathering and celebrating what connects us with nature and the seasons, the nature in each of us. On Tuesday, I was at Cavallo Point and yesterday took the ferry to San Francisco for our yearly book club gathering at The Waterfront. One half of the restaurant was closed because the ever-increasing winter tides came flooding in.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration said it will dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, one of the world’s leading Earth science research institutions. One reason is that their research shows climate change. The other is that the Colorado governor won’t obey Trump in pardoning former Colorado election official Tina Peters, convicted by a jury for state crimes in facilitating a data breach in her quest to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Trump has granted her a “full pardon”, of course, but it needs to be Governor Polis who pardons her since it is a state crime.

And so we approach the Solstice, a time in the northern hemisphere to honor the richness in the dark and return to the evolving expansiveness of light.