Winter Solstice – Cathy's Blog!

Posted on December 18, 2025December 18, 2025 by Cathy Edgett

Celebration

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.

My eye is caught by the beauty and dignity of a Great Blue Heron

Posted on December 21, 2023 by Cathy Edgett

Solstice

It’s a day to pause as the light begins to shift and we prepare to enter a new year.

May this be the year we move into the heart of longing for peace and release the tools and words of war.

I watched a video of the poet Jane Hirshfield last night. She spoke of how Kinship will save us, the acknowledgment of our interconnection. Perhaps we could say to every tree we pass: sister, sister, sister. We can ask our natural friends, our relatives, the mountains and plants, what they can teach us. This is a time to listen.

I’ve always loved the work of Alexander Calder, his mobiles and circuses. Jane was asked if darkness is required in great art. She used his work as an example of such lightness, beauty, and happiness that reflection is required to find the mortality. It’s in the delicacy of his creations. They move and sway, fragile in their time here, as are we.

The psychologist Carl Jung wrote: The whole world wants peace and the whole world prepares for war.

May this be the year we acknowledge our kinship and grow the heart of our desire for peace and the wind and breath chimed grace of love.

Here is the link to the talk if you’re interested:

Posted on December 22, 2019 by Cathy Edgett

Honoring

William Blake wrote, “In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.”

We are now officially in the season of winter. Where I live, rain is pouring down, and joy, renewal, peace, and ease sprout in the drops linked to connect.

My book group which has been meeting for over thirty years spent Friday night in San Francisco near Union Square. We stay at “our place” which is fully decorated for the Holidays, and entering, we are in France. Downstairs, dinner is served in a castle-like atmosphere honoring Joan of Arc, Jeanne d’Arc. The climax to the meal is Grand Marnier Souffle.

My friend Elaine Chan-Scherer celebrated Winter Solstice at the labyrinth in the Headlands. Her photo captures all we celebrate as we gather to honor All.