Winter Dawn

 

Winter solstice this year is Dec. 21.  On that day the sun will end its steady march to the south and begin the long sweep back north.  Our days will grow longer, our nights shorter.  

And the cycle will continue to repeat.

As I learned more about pre-Christian history (as in what life was like prior to Christianity), the more in tune I felt with the pagan rituals that Christianity absorbed and claimed.  So Christmas supplanted the festival around the winter solstice.  Some of the pagan rituals still exist today, mostly in the northern climes, where daylight gradually disappears and needs to be encouraged to come back again.

Where the sun rises moves, quite noticeably throughout the year.  Right now the sun rise is over the house in the centre of the photo.  During the summer I can't see the sunrise - if I should ever be up at that hour! - as it rises a few houses to the left and out of view of where I have my new recliner.

I don't know if it is just 2020, or my advancing age (and thank goodness for that!) or if it is the pandemic, the current political climate, or all of the above, but I find myself less inclined to do much of anything.  It takes very little to knock me off my rails and remain sat in the new chair.

One way I deal with such a lack of desire to do much is to...accept obligations.  Far enough in the future they don't feel too pressing.  Yet.  But close enough that I tend to be wary of the march of the days passing.

Last week I managed to get through my first(?) Zoom presentation.  Now I have to figure out how to actually teach via Zoom as I've agreed to a 3 hour mini-workshop.

Some of the time spent sitting in the new chair has been to consider how to teach remotely, a topic that I would normally only ever do in person.

So I have pretty much decided to just focus on the principles.  Give people the information they need to look at their own weaving practice and encourage them to self assess.  And then maybe when things are 'better' (re: covid) and they can meet in person, set up a local study group where they can help each other.  Who knows, maybe by February they will already be able to do that.

This week I have another appointment, this time to see the nurse practitioner at the cancer clinic.  I don't think that the numbers will be 'bad', but until I get the lab results I don't know for sure.  So I am feeling unsettled and my focus is shot.

However, I have a box of Olds homework to mark, and have been working on that.  A quick glance at the woven samples is encouraging.  Plus I hear there is one more box to arrive soon, and another who has asked for a further extension, so hopefully that will arrive soon, as well.

One of the delights of teaching the Olds program is to see how many truly dedicated and gifted weavers there are.  The fact that a lot of them want to take a deep dive into the craft is heartening.  

For today my three studio things (can't seem to manage much more than that) are to finish marking the homework and to weave two towels.  Anything beyond that will be a bonus.  But that's my goal.  It helps to drag me out of the chair to have a list of three things to accomplish.  If I didn't I might not get anything done at all.

Hibernation looks more and more attractive with every passing winter!