Book of Days

Welcome to December, the opposite side of the year from June. Ever since the solstice in June, Midsummer here in the Northern Hemisphere, the nights have been growing longer and darker… and soon, on the 21st of this month, we reach Midwinter. A new solstice, when the pattern will change, when sunlight begins to return in the form of lengthening days. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. For now, these first three weeks of December, nights continue to grow longer. We counter this with increasing light in our celebrations: Advent, Santa Lucia, Hanukkah, Yule, Christmas, Kwanzaa… all of these ceremonies call down the light, bring it closer to us and to those we love: Darkest night, deepest joy.

It’s a full month to be sure. To help you keep track, here is our gift to you: your Convivio Book of Days calendar for December. It is, as usual, a printable PDF, a document you can print on standard US Letter size paper, a nice companion to the blog. Our cover star this month is some of that light called down from the darkness: lights through a frosty window pane, from inside our cozy Lake Worth home last Christmas. (Yes, even here in Lake Worth, “where summer spends winter,” it can sometimes get a bit frosty this time of year.)

I’ll be writing about most or all of these red letter days in December, though maybe this year I’ll group some together during the Twelve Days of Christmas that begin once Christmas Day has passed. This way you’re not getting an email notice from me every one of those Twelve Days. Not sure yet. I do worry sometimes about sending you too much mail and the last thing I want is to be a bother. Best to keep the vibration on a higher level, and perhaps that means more consolidation, more editing. Less verbiage. We shall see what we shall see. Meanwhile, while I ponder that and figure that out, a good start of this month to you. May it be filled with many good things for us all.