It is the winter solstice. The shortest time of sunlight and the longest darkness of the year (at least in this hemisphere, at this latitude). Knowing, of course, that somewhere else on earth it is summer, or endless daylight. Such a subjective geocentric reality I find myself in.
I feel strongly the conditions of the darkness: loneliness, melancholy, isolation – I feel as if I am standing as Shakespeare said on a “sterile promontory”, where the influence of the cold and darkness of space are most prominent to my inner vision and hearing.
I sense a stillness, a quietude, a place where my soul can commune with nature, the cosmos, the prime mover of it all.
Beautiful music has been coming readily to me as I sit and play a glorious Baldwin grand piano. I haven’t been recording it. It is like a Navajo sand painting or Tibetan sand mandala. Only known and perceived in the moment of its completion and then it is gone. As William Blake wrote “He who binds to himself a joy doth the winged life destroy. But he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in Eternity’s sunrise.”
The piano has been teaching me and the more time I spend with it the deeper the explorations go. Discovering richer and more elegant chords. As the man in Manhattan said to the lost visitor asking for directions “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” The man replied, “Practice”.
I will light a candle and sit quietly in contemplation to honor the light that will return slowly about 2 minutes a day. And simply be and honor what I feel and be grateful for the insights that are revealed.
Good Solstice, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah….
Prayers for peace on earth this season and always.
Buddy