Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
There are many ways to divide up the year. We all use several different calendars — one based on months, one based on seasons, perhaps a school calendar or a business calendar. Some cultures emphasize the moon, with varying degrees of correspondence to the solar year. Some cultures don't bother with a framework and base… Continue reading The Daily: 24 December 24
The weather is finally settling into winter. The highs are in the single digits and the lows don't bear repeating. I've got all the heavy curtains closed tight, and draft blockers are wedged tight against the thresholds. And yet the furnace is still running far too much for my comfort. I fear the next oil… Continue reading The Daily: 23 December 2024
Today, I set out to describe meaningful ritual at this time of the year... things went a bit sideways... A few years ago, I began this blog chiefly as a way to talk about how to mark time, how to meaningfully tie each Season to the seasons without creating harm and waste — and exhausting… Continue reading The Daily: 22 December 2024
Green Man in the cold morning light Today, 21 December 2024 at 4:20am, the sun appears to stand still at its most southern point in its apparent journey along the horizon. We call this period of slow change, where day length changes incrementally and then not at all, the solstice, the “sun pause”. In the… Continue reading The Daily: 21 December 2024
Saturnalia Saturnalia begins today. This year Saturn is sharing the night sky with the much brighter upstart planetary deities, Venus and Jupiter; but Saturn is still brighter than any star in the sky, shining to the south for several hours after sunset. In my part of the world, the earliest sunsets, 4:11pm have already passed… Continue reading The Daily: 17 December 2024
I spent most of my adult life and raised my sons in a place where traditions are still living and enacted. Moreover, these traditions are understood. The reasons we do the things we do are well known and the source of endless discussion and debate. Nothing is simply the done thing. There must be both… Continue reading The Daily: 16 December 2024
The Midwinter Moon is full at 4:01am this morning, so look for the Midwinter moonrise tonight. All full moons are lovely, but there is something magical about the light at Midwinter. Moonrise is usually colored warm yellow to orange by the thick atmosphere at the horizon. But in winter's cold, the atmosphere can't hold as… Continue reading The Daily: 15 December 2024
Halcyon Days Now, here is an idea that seems to have forgotten its roots entirely. In our times, “halcyon days” refers to a golden past, a time when everything was wonderful. Sometimes it just means “youth” with overtones of innocence and insouciance. But this name has nothing to do with nostalgia. In fact, it’s an… Continue reading The Daily: 14 December 2024
Lucy Light Shortest day, longest night —traditional English proverb Before Pope Gregory tweaked the Julian calendar and caused a great deal of confusion, 13 December was celebrated as the winter solstice in Scandinavia. The poem by the late 16th century English writer, John Donne, “A Nocturnal upon St Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day” shows… Continue reading The Daily: 13 December 2024
Our Lady of Guadalupe The holy image 12 December is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico and Mexican people wherever they live. Our Lady is Mary, but she is also a pastiche of many native deities, and she came to humans through, not a rich and powerful white man,… Continue reading The Daily: 12 December 2024
By My Solitary Hearth 