shadows

[arethinn]

Someone posted this in a pagan community today:

"So today I have remembered to harvest the light in to my soul and ingrane it there. I will store it away and tap the reserves as needed through the winter ahead, through the dark, cold nights yet to come. For though I love them, sometimes we need to feel the sun kiss our skin, the birds to chirp and the warm August breezes to caress our soul, despite the fact that it is the middle of December."

So I thought... doing the reverse for summer. "Harvest the shadows into your soul and ingrain (ahem) them there. Store it away and tap the reserves as needed through the summer ahead, through the bright, hot days yet to come. For though I love them, sometimes we need to feel the stars kiss our skin, the crickets to chip and the cool February breezes to caress our soul, despite the fact that it is the middle of June."

I dunno, the preoccupation of people with light annoys me sometimes... *shrug*

Comments

[wildelf.livejournal.com]

*applaude* I like it. Muchly.
Well written.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what's up with the summer worship? All year long, we hear "oh, I wish it was summer!" Now summer's here and for the past few months it's been too hot to stand outside without sweating, too bright to see clearly, and the air's been so still paper falls straight down.

Here's to the darker parts of the year, whose charms outshine the brighter!

[arethinn]

*shrug* I only copied their words and put in "dark" things instead of light...

[arethinn]

"Winter: the season in which we try to get the house as warm as it was in the summer, when we complained about the heat."

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Hah! Nice.

[lindsaybits]

i think the people who are pre-occupied with light are either people who suffer from seasonal depression or are just not thinking clearly.

yanno, if they want to live somewhere that's warm all year round, there's always florida. ;D

i will admit that i very much do the "it's winter, i wish it were summer" / "it's summer, i wish it were winter". the truth of the matter is that the times of the year that seem best with me are the transitional seasons of spring and fall. they seem so beautiful, so poignant, so full of thought and promise.

it is important to recognize, ultimately, that without darkness, light would be irrelevant (and vice versa). they are both necessary components of the whole.

p.s.

[lindsaybits]

i personally suffer from SAD, so my statement about seasonal depression was not a mean-hearted jab or anything. it is proven that light therapy is very very helpful in dealing with winter-based seasonal depression. but the light that helps seasonal depression has to come from special lamps, not a warm fuzzy place inside.

[pixyled.livejournal.com]

White light pagans are closet judeo-christians

[arethinn]

if they want to live somewhere that's warm all year round, there's always florida

LOL. Many parts of California, too, actually - but then we gots us our earthquakes. (Not four in a row, though!)

Re: p.s.

[shalora.livejournal.com]

That's the same argument I was going to make. Personally, I love darkness. That's the only time you can see the stars. I love cold rainy weekend days when you can curl up in your fuzzy sweatsuit with your favorite afghan that your mama made and some hot chocolate by the fire with a fat novel (probably by Charles DeLint...). I hate being hot. When it's hot at night, I can't sleep.
On the other hand, when it's really gray for long periods of time, my SAD kicks in and I wind up miserable for weeks on end. On the balance, I'll take summer. Especially now that I'm living in Oakland rather than the South Bay and it is worlds away cooler in the summer! Though September is still muggy and hot and awful...

[aaangyl.livejournal.com]

Me, I like the whole seasons thing. I like that sometimes it's hot and sometimes it's cold and all the stuff in-between. I like laying under the sun and under the stars and under clouds. I like the rotations of shoot, bud, growth, flower, fruit, harvest, passing, and the shift to the cold-weather plants. Maybe in the middle of December I'll long for a summer day, because that's what I'm lacking, but I know it'll be there soon enough.

[wildelf.livejournal.com]

Yup, but I still applaude yours [and you did a LITTLE more than that].

Re: p.s.

[winterredwood.livejournal.com]

I also suffer from SAD. I used to dread winter for this very reason, but I've found now that if I try to accept winter for what it is and see the beauty and necessity of it, the SAD becomes more tolerable. And I love this more introspective season. I'd take Samhain over Beltane any day. ;)

Re: p.s.

[lindsaybits]

my SAD was really horrid when i lived up north (chicago). since moving south (atlanta), it's muuuuch better. it's still there, but nowhere near as bad.

all of the seasons are necessary. we need our dark sides just as much as our light sides. it's when we try to stifle one or the other that things start to get really messy. there is most definetly a certain beauty to be found in winter. it can just be really hard sometimes.

also, sunlamps and those Reveal light bulbs are both verra helpful for combating SAD in the greyer months.

this is all IME and IMO, YMMV.