First Day of Winter

I feel as if I should post a picture that is all black -- except, as I am happy to remember, the first day of winter is the shortest day of the year. Ergo, tomorrow will be a speck longer. Although it won't be noticeable for a bit, in a couple of weeks I will be able to appreciate that there IS a bit more daylight, the good old Earth is tilting along as it always does and, although the snow and cold will be here a long while yet, the surity of seasonal change tells me about dependability within the variabilty of what the newscasters tell me each morning before I get out of bed.

This very simple piece of knowledge gives me considerable peace of mind; maybe I am a very simple person [with various pretenses to sophistication] but such simple, extremely ancient observations connects all human beings, now living and going back to the first observers who marked off the changes of the moon by notching sticks, or making marks on a big rock with a little rock. This underlies the Dao that underlies Confucius's views that I was writing about yesterday. [And yes, finally some authoritative sources spell it "dao," not "tao" and I'm so glad!]

So I think I'll light an incense stick so I'll have something lovely to sniff in those moments my attention surfaces fro the book I'm reading. It's a lovely, quiet evening with spring on it's way.