It is still dark now, I have the candles lit – awaiting the dawn. There won’t be much of a sunrise this morning as we are socked in with a thick heavy rain. I am not complaining, I love rain.

We are hours away from dawn, on this the longest night. It has been a heavy year, a heavy few years, and we, as in all humans, are struggling with some very dark issues; war, poverty, oppression, climate change, greed, inequality, and an absolutely baffling inability to construct functional leadership models. These issues seem to be pressing against the window in the darkness…urgent, all encompassing, darker shadows in the darkness.

Core issues seem to threaten our identities in ways we don’t yet understand. Will a shifting definition of gender identity reconfigure what it means to be a woman? Will this shift the fight of feminism making enemies of allies and allies of enemies?

There are personal issues; what do these strange new times mean? will AI render me obsolete in my work – my fallible human-ness no match for the soul-less and perfect algorithm.

Dark, dark, darkness as the candles flicker.

But dawn will come, and this solstice night my candles are lit as a beacon for hope to return with the sun. Illuminating the whole story, providing perspective and clarity. A realization that life is ever-changing. There have always been glorious victories, and devastating defeats and we have all suffered individually and collectively since the first winter solstice we observed, balancing precariously on two legs – anticipating the dawn.

I will adapt, we all will. It is what we are made of you and I – consciousness. And consciousness is always changing – like a river, like a beam of light from the sun as it breaks the spell of the long dark night.

Happy Solstice! I hope the turning of the wheel brings you all that you are worthy of.