To read aloud each year on this day. Wishing a joyful season to you and to all your dear ones. Thank you, Susan Cooper.
So the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow‐white world Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees; They hung their homes with evergreen; They burned beseeching fires all night long To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them Echoing behind us ‐ listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight, This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land: They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends, And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now, This year, and every year.
Welcome Yule!
—Susan Cooper
Happy Solstice Sheila & Jim & family! Thanks for sharing the lovely poem and the painting of the Washington Cathedral.
I spent many a midnight mass on Christmas Eve in that glorious church, pagan that I am.
I’m so grateful for so much that I’ve had in my life and among the finest treasures are the many enduring friendships and love from mates from high school and then college and the many years I was so lucky to dance with the Cub Hill Cloggers, having learned to dance from the original Green Grass Cloggers from Greenville, NC.
And I am sure you and your fellow cloggers paid joyful tribute to the many seasons of the year with your dancing! I hope there is still clogging in your life.