Regenerative Winter Solstice

Happy Winter Solstice, 2025!

The winter solstice floats in on a sea of fog as the northern world exhales a breath it has held since the peak of summer. Here in the foothills, the shift emerges with the hum of bumblebees in the manzanita, the sunsets over the Coast Range reversing their march southward, and the near absence of large birds in the sky.

Pre-sunrise, the Earth hasn’t yet turned enough to let the sun’s rays reach over the Sierra Nevada massif, and yet the bumblebees are already gathering nectar from the manzanita blossoms. These gregarious pollinators are not worried about what the weather will be next year, tomorrow, or, for that matter, even in an hour. They do not trouble themselves with the knowledge that the manzanita they are feeding from is itself a transition plant that will be dry and blossom-less as soon as it has generated enough soil for larger trees to stretch their electric forms upward.

Vultures are so ubiquitous throughout the year that it seems almost impossible they are not gracing the sky with their cleansing presence. Yet, just a few weeks ago, they gathered into their kettles, ascended the rising thermal vortexes, and made their journey south. I suppose these undervalued masters of cleansing and nutrient distribution have little use for days so short that their very presence is no more real than the memory of a dream. However, like a powerful dream, an instant of sparkling sun in the moist, verdant grass may be all that is necessary to shift the perspective and lift the spirit into a new season.

At the close of sunlight, I find myself drawn, as though by instinct, to the hilltops. Golden rays reflected from the underside of the still-present autumn leaves wash away worry and strife. Robins and bluebirds are already here, enjoying the day’s final snack on scarlet Toyon berries. A sea of cream-colored fog has erased the distance between the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Range. In the sun’s final moments, it seems I can reach out and touch Mt. Diablo as our energizing star becomes a set of stacked rectangles instead of a round orb. The squareness, a fantastical yet real phenomenon created when the sun’s underside rays are refracted strongly upward by the inversion layer between the icy fog and the warm air above.

It is in this tapestry of surreal phenomena and fading light that the winter solstice finds its deeper meaning. The longest night of the year is not a void but a threshold. It makes space for dreams to ferment and for unseen rhythms of renewal to unfold like tiny seeds into giant trees. We are reminded that darkness is itself a fertile incubator of possibility. Like the bumblebees drawn to blossoms in defiance of expectation, we too can find nourishment in moments that seem threadbare and hopeless.

Regeneration may not always shout, but it speaks with constant conviction. It is the quiet insistence of dawn after the longest night, the subtle stirring of life beneath frost-kissed earth, and the way our breath mingles with the chill air, reminding us that we are part of this cycle, not merely observers. On the solstice, we are invited to lean into our own darkness, to greet it as an old friend rather than an adversary. In doing so, we integrate into the eternal river of metamorphosis that has played out since the dawn of time.

This regenerative river cannot be dried out by our actions, even though those who strive to control it never stop telling us otherwise. The return of the sun after the solstice’s tallest night is a yearly reminder of the living Earth’s ability to morph life back into existence. When the manzanita stands burnt and dry it may seem like the end, but in the dark soil it created, the seed of a pine long since rotted will be given a chance to germinate. This pine, or another creature like it, will again reach into the heavens and nucleate the rain needed for full-scale regeneration.

So on this winter solstice, let us not focus upon the darkness that appears to engulf us, but on the long nights'  dreaming of a future more beautiful than current consciousness can perceive.

The future starts now!