Today marks the Winter Solstice. The days that have been getting gradually shorter, will now change direction and begin to gradually lengthen.
For me, the winter solstice has always been the start of the new year. Even though we still have the hardest part of the winter season ahead of us, the fact that from today on, the days will be gradually be getting longer, is a huge boost to my psyche.
It is easy for me to understand why the winter solstice was so important to the ancient people who studied the sky. For those people who carefully observed the sky, the discover that on the same day every year, the diminishing of the daylight stopped, and that the days following began to lengthen, was a hugely significant event. It was so important that it was not only celebrated with festivities, but also with the great monuments that they built. Those structures were often situated so that the place where the sun set on the solstice was marked in some way.
For me, this year’s official advent of winter certainly began in an eventful way. Last night our jam performed at McBride’s Midnight Makers Market at the Community Hall. There were tables where participants could make Christmas oriented items, and other tables where vendors were selling homemade crafts and food. Our jam provided live background music for the event.
When we had finished playing and started to dismantle and gather up our equipment to take out of the building, I had to really push to opened the door of the hall because of the snow behind it, and was rather gobsmacked at seeing the fury of snow that was falling outside. We had to walk through the deepening snow to load up all our equipment into the back of my pickup truck. After it was loaded, I headed home, and I couldn’t believe the whiteout of snow I had to drive through.
I have of course, driven down our road thousands of times, but last night was the most memorable drive down our road, ever. I had a hard time even identifying where exactly I was, because the snow was coming down so thickly.
I tried to just keep my truck in the middle of the road, but even that was difficult to do, because the visibility was so poor. Last night as I drove very slowly, it would have been helpful to see some tire tracks in the road to follow, but instead there was just a solid white surface behind the thick white veil of falling snow in front of my windshield.
The snow was all coming down at an angle and that influenced where I thought the middle of the road was. At one point, down by the river, I had to catch myself because I got too close to the left side edge of the road. Even driving so slowly, it was a harrowing, white knuckle drive.
As I said, it was difficult to see where I was, as I drove down the road. At one point, I began to wonder if I had already passed our driveway. Fortunately, I have a lot of reflectors on our name sign at the top of the driveway, and I was much relieved when I saw them shine through the sheets of falling snow, and realized that I had found our driveway.
Today, on the Winter Solstice, I will have to crank up my snowblower, and spend some time clearing all of the snow from our driveway. I was a little surprised when I went outside this morning, to see that there were only 5 inches (13cm) of fresh snow on the ground. After the snowstorm I had to drive through last night, I thought there would be a whole lot more of the white stuff to deal with.
View my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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