The Longest Night.....

.....is over. The longest night is done. Last night the world turned and the scale tipped. Now the day will slowly push back the night. Little by little, the long cold nights will yield to the sunlight of the day. Days will lenghthen. Spring will come. Darkness will go to the other side of the world to linger. I know that we have many more months of cold nights, but the longest night is over and spring will come again soon.

I spent the longest night of the year in my mother's house. Reason enough to celebrate. Sleeping in the room that was once my sister's, the oldest of the five children; then my room when she went away to college. I was fourteen then. Fourteen and finally I had a room of my own. Now it is my mother's sewing room. Her work and her joy is everywhere in the room. I snuggled down in flannel sheets with my dog curled up on her dog bed at my feet. My son Jacob slept soundly in the room next door. All was well in my world. And the longest night passed soundlessly, peacefully, gratefully.

The longest night is over.

Life is good.