The Winter Solstice

As winter sets in… it’s time to embrace the darkness

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The Winter Solstice

On the edge of the longest night,

Winter whispers her ancient rite.

A hush settles on weary gray land,

Yet in this darkness a seed is sown.

For every dusk births a new dawn,

And light returns, gently… slowly.

Sometimes you have to embrace the darkness. Embrace the melancholy. Winter is the season for melancholy. Sometimes the melancholy can be a comfort… if you don’t fight it - If you fully experience it within the dark dreary days and the long lingering nights.

There’s comfort in the quiet and subdued darkness of the early winter evenings, perhaps spent with an herbal tea, an oatmeal stout, chicken pot pie (or a day’s long simmering red sauce if it’s my family) shared with your intimates. It’s reading Dickens, and Poe. Listening to Brahms, Barber, Etta James, early Miles Davis, Norah Jones (Sing to me Norah), Fleet Foxes, and George Winston. It’s watching a classic Gene Kelly movie. Or That 70s Show.

It’s a time to slow down. A time for solitude; to think and to ponder and to write and to rest. And to venture out and encase yourself in the sparse browns and glacial grays. After all, nature is also embracing the melancholy.

If you’re feeling stuck in the in murky gloom, winter’s solitude is the perfect season for creativity. And for exploring and expressing your melancholy - In music, art, poetry, dance, spoken word, photography, architecture, design. It’s drawing in a notebook, the languid legato strands of playing the cello, improvising the blues on the piano. It’s finger painting. Creativity is a way to experience and understand it.

Creativity helps find a way forward, and creates an opening for the light to seep back in again when the time is right.

Sometimes we need the darkness. We need to honor it. But remember, the darkness won’t last forever. Eventually color will overtake the misty and muted grays. Eventually the days will grow longer, ending with golden sunsets and we’ll be able to dance in the daisies again. And sing along with the reggae band.

Today may be the darkest day… but there’s more light starting tomorrow.

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As the dark settles in on this Winter Solstice this is for anyone who may be feeling a little melancholy this time of year:

Happy Holidays,

Ray

Raymond Leone, MMT, MT-BC is a board-certified music therapist based in Northern Virginia and writes extensively about music therapy and music and wellness.

Did you know that if you hit the heart at the top or the bottom of this email you will make my day and it will make it easier for others to find this publication. Thanks!