The Winter Solstice Reveals The Urgency of Regeneration

The Winter solstice has come and gone on our small and spinning planet. From where I stand in the Northern Hemisphere, it marked the shortest day and the longest night—winter’s official beginning.

My friends in New Zealand and Australia who reside south of the Equator experience this solstice very differently—they enjoy the longest day and the shortest night. It’s the beginning of summer for them.  

But my story begins with our ancient Northern ancestors, who heralded the sun’s return with great celebration and ceremony. In fact, these pagan celebrations bleed into our holidays today.

But theirs was serious business. These ancients of the north depended on recognizing the seasonal cycles to give them hope and help them through the lean winter months. Their winter solstice was an important reminder that plantings and harvests would someday return.

As we mark the end of 2020, with a reminder that the light will return, I must ponder…

Can the awareness of our place in this vast and boundless universe teach us ways to behave and think differently? 

How important is it to remember that we are creative, boundless beings, spinning and tilting amongst stars, moons and galaxies that have a hold on us?       

Our sun—this perfect sphere of hot plasma—is the most important energy source for life to exist on Earth.  

The winter solstice we just witnessed is in itself a minor miracle. As the Earth orbits around the sun—the center of our solar system—it tilts. Our planet Earth doesn’t sit upright as it orbits the sun. It orbits on its axis at a tilt of 23.5 degrees. So, as we are orbiting, rotating and tilting, the Northern and Southern hemispheres take turns with sunlight.  

On the winter solstice, the planet’s Northern Hemisphere is turned as far away from the sun as it ever is. Cold, dark, yet hopeful.

I have witnessed this firsthand in my years trading Organic fresh produce. When the winter is upon us, asparagus is harvested in Peru. As we tilt and twirl, the sun’s rays move northward, and asparagus is cut in Mexico. Then southern California, the Central Valley and lastly, Washington bursts forth its grassy spears.

As the solstice moves to spring, we begin thinking about planting again.

The moon—our rocky, volcanic satellite—has the second largest effect on us after the sun.

Even though she lacks atmosphere or magnetic fields, she is magically linked to us. She pulls the tides, is a compass for bird migrations, and she may affect our moods and swings, female, male or penguin. La Luna is seductive.

As a young girl, I used to take moon baths at night when she was full. Perhaps that’s why I’m a bit looney?

But is it looney to think about the moon when farming and gardening? Gardening by the moon often conjures up mystical images of astrology and numerology.

But there may be some truth to it beyond its mystical connotations. Many farmers and gardeners believe that planting by the lunar cycles affects the way plants grow and flourish. Her mighty gravitational pull makes the sap flow mightily, and flowers produce more abundantly.

How to begin to understand such complexities? Fortunately, this is not that difficult when you have a Farmer’s Almanac. The good old almanac will show you when to sow and transplant a variety of plants. Once you have this as your guide you will be able to master planting by the moon quickly.

None of this is loony nor hocus-pocus; perhaps it’s a new—or old way of thinking about how we are intrinsically linked to the astrological bodies in our universe. 

The waning moon phase is said to be most suited to sowing root crops, flowering bulbs, and vegetables that bear fruit below ground. Examples of plants that do well by the waning moon are carrots and potatoes.

This brings me back to Regenerative thinking. The beliefs I have held about doing things or making things better may not be working for me now—or for the planet.

Perhaps it’s time to shift our thinking?

On a small and fertile planet, we, these people, have save seen enough desecration in the last 4, 20, 200 years to last an eternity of extinctions. We, this dominant big-brained being, have the capability for great creativity and inner wisdom.

To find a way of living on this planet so that other species and peoples do not suffer. So that the climate begins to heal and our soils and biomasses regenerate. 

The word Regeneration itself means to EVOLVE capacity—not to do better, follow certain rules. BUT to make it (us) more able to what it is seeking to do in order to express its essence.

I am learning more about Regenerative Thinking in my life, reading Carol Sanford’s The Regenerative Life: Transform Any Organization, Our Society, and Your Destiny.

If you want to see your role in this creative chaos differently and throw all preconceptions out the proverbial window – well perchance this book will help.

It may guide to understanding your role in this play – discovering your core- and building your-self back to becoming who you must be.

Something new, something so grounded, inspiring, and resilient; you will change the world.

Are you with me?

The history of civilization is the story of man’s emancipation from a lot that was harsh, brutish, and short. Every step of that upward climb to a sophisticated way of life has been paralleled by a corresponding advance in the art of perfumery. —ERIC MAPLE

Rage, rage against the dying of the light. —DYLAN THOMAS (And) always smell as nice as possible. —LYNDA BARRY