Postcard from the Edge

The Nature of Solstice

Photo by George Hiles on Unsplash

I hope this postcard arrives late because you’re offline, somewhere warm, welcoming, and in good company. I am, however, raising a glass to you.

I love every month, and December has a particular resonance.

There is something about the end of the year - it holds my birthday, the gathering of family, and today, the transition represented by the winter solstice, the passing of the shortest day and setting our compass towards Spring.

It’s a time when my inner squirrel likes to take stock of all the thoughts, ideas, connections and insights that have occurred during the journey of the year.

Some have been discarded, some have found themselves with others, and some, well, I can’t remember where I put them… Maybe they’ll find me.

But I have more than enough to see me through to Spring. It’s been a good year, and I’m looking forward to 2024 in your company.

See you next year

Richard

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The Wind in My Sails carrying me into 2024….

KNOWLEDGE OF THE MARGINS

New ways of operating are required when habitual forms of knowledge no longer suffice. Build towards productive knowledge — the capacity to harness the indeterminate potential of a changing situation, the conditions of flux. Cultivate the power to not power over, attempt not to overpower but rather undertake, intervene. Make not take advantage, nurture the art of knowing how (and when) to work the situation well, of harnessing its chances. Recuperate lost and forgotten knowledge(s), those ways of doing things that have become mistrusted or marginalised as we have gradually turned away from knowing how. Practise the cunning of the poacher or the thief. Observe the laws of brinksmanship, of sailing close to the wind. Become a reader of auspicious signs and of the body’s unspoken language. Grow accustomed to the dark.

Emma Cocker. The Yes of the No. (HT to Michael Dila)

"You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it."

—Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk