The Day

Today.  The winter solstice.  The beginning of the coldest season.  The shortest day of the year (which, for my area is exactly 10h, 33mm of visible light).  And what could have been the last day of life on the Earth.

Of course, it wasn't.  Or isn't. Yet.  And I suppose, truly, any day could be the last day.  For any or all of us.  If the idealists and existentialists are correct, then the day that I die will be the last day for all things, right?

As I rode my bike to work, my mind absorbed the environment around me.  The low-lying angle of the morning sun; the uncannily warm temperatures for the first day of winter (50 degrees!); the smells that one would associate with spring...

And I smiled.  Even if the world did end tonight - I would be at peace.  I'm young, but I have had the opportunity to experience life.

I'm a do-er.  I actively try to learn new things, to find new adventures.  Daylight is precious to me.  So the shortest day of the year is a blissful occasion.  It means that things are progressing uphill for 6 months.  Each passing day will mark a few more moments of brightness; one day closer to summer.  I can't wait to have my garden back!

The damp dirt road gives way beneath my bike tires as I pedal along.  The mildly cool air swirls around us, and on the darkest twenty-four hour span of 2012, I find contentment and hope.