Happy Winter Solstice! Blessing for a Happy Yuletide Season.

“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 lit 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, The Shortest Day

Over the years I have kept many Winter Solstice images in my PC files so today I am sharing a few of my favorites. I shared this one above for the first time in 2013

And this one was posted in 2014, time sure has a way of going by  in a flash.  This month has gone by so fast I can barely remember the days.

This image first appeared in 2012 and the one below it is the first image I posted way back in 2010

It's been a rough year health wise for me so my main focus for the New Year will be my health and getting a better grasp on the A-Fib because with a little of the research I have done there is more out there than just taking an extra blood thinner to prevent a stoke.  

Brightly burns the Yule log tonight,

Magic dances in firelight.

Hold my hand and join the song,

Raise the Sun King bright and strong.

Dark is giving way to light,

As brightly burns the Yule log tonight.