Keira McArthur

My practice is to wake early, catch my first thoughts in a cup of strong coffee, and pour them out into something written.

This morning I find myself in a wide bunk bed that’s been built into the many-windowed, second storey front porch of a student apartment.  I look down out of the many-windows at internalized students walking their six-am exam heads through crunchy snow.

Ottawa University is immediately across the street. At the street’s end (which direction? no idea), is a four-lane, one-way major artery through the capital city of Canada – delivery trucks have been thundering through there since 4am.

I wake with the vague thought that perhaps city thunder is more intense in the last few days leading to Christmas.

It is winter solstice, today.  As the farmer’s almanac reports, “The word solstice comes from Latin sol “sun” and sistere “to stand still.””.

 

I believe this is how memories get made.  If you take note of little things, just as they are in the moment, they can warm you like a fire in winter.  If you mark the time.

Happy solstice, everyone.

I hold you that I know and love softly and without constraint, in true appreciation for who you are.