Amy Lu's View

I am not a fan of the limited hours of daylight we receive here in the Northern climes during winter.

Yes, I can see that there are potential benefits and perhaps even deep spiritual and psychological meaning to be found in living with and in extended hours of darkness.

But that doesn’t mean I like it.

The only advantage of long nights that comes to me now is that when I get up at 7:00 a.m. and it’s still dark out, I can pretend it’s because I’m such an early riser that I got up before the sun. I mean, yes, technically I did, but not such a feat in Minnesota in December.

And the later sunrises should make it easier for me to actually catch a sunrise, but while I often see the effects of the sun rising (“Hey, when I went into the bathroom to put on all my many layers of winter running clothes it was dark and I was worried I was going to have to run in the dark even though the sun has always come up before I actually get my butt out the door”) our home window configuration is not conducive to actually seeing the sunrise.

I do love having long hours of sunlight when the sun doesn’t set until 9:00 p.m, and of course, this is the trade off. If I had to choose, would I give up long summer days for more equilibrium? Wow, that’s a tough “Would You Rather” question.

Tonight we attended a lovely Solstice service at our church via Zoom. One idea that really struck me was the idea of possibility: This is the time of the year where the pendulum is poised to start swinging back in the other direction. Kinetic energy is at its zentih (I think…my science could be off so just go with the metaphor).

The idea of “stillness” doesn’t really speak to me (not saying it shouldn’t or won’t someday) but the tension before the release of the rubberband does. I don’t know what I want to launch into…maybe something as simple as the longer days of summer, with more time to run…and drink.