“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” Hamilton Wright Mabi
Here in my small area of the world we are buried deep in the cold, frigid snow of winter even though the solstice doesn’t officially happen until tomorrow ringing in winter. We are awaiting the shortest day of the year. It is a time to hunker down before a fire, and sleep long and deep dreaming about spring that will appear before we know it. The seasons roll on, and I have been savoring each one learning from them all their hard and joyful lessons with gratitude.
Gratitude was my word for 2013 and something I continue to learn to practice more and more each day. As part of my gratitude 
practice I linked in with Laura@ShinetheDivine for her wonderful Gratitude Quilt. Here is my contribution:
I am grateful for all who have been in my life and are now passed on. For those still in my life, gracing it with joy. And for those who are about to leave this world and my life. I thank you especially for all the light and love you have given me. I am a better person because of all of you. And I am blessed!!
This winter my mantra is silence… I continue to work on my physical and spiritual well-being as I get ready for the unknown next steps in my life. I know I am becoming stronger, better…wonderfully thriving! In order to do these things though I must go inward in silence and contemplate to acquire knowledge and wisdom.
“Silence is a source of great strength.” ~Lao Tzu
With winter coming, I am thrilled not so much for the weather, but for the knowledge that we will be seeing more light with each new day. Those in the Southern Hemisphere are entering into their hot, hot summer. Perhaps a week or two there would help me get through the freezing months ahead.
So let’s see how folks are celebrating the new season….
Christienne@Sho’ Nuff Sistuh’s Guide to Organic Gardening is remembering and dreaming about her garden, and wishing all our gardens have a wonderful slumber to wake again in spring. I will be dreaming along with her.
If you have not been following along with Andrea@igardendaily, and her daily wreaths, you are missing some great ideas and wonderful history. In particular I loved this meaning behind wreaths as it goes along with my feelings for the solstice:
In Pre-Christian or Pagan times much importance was placed on the Winter solstice. It was viewed as a time of death and re-birth and the passing of the shortest day of the year called for much celebration. Evergreen wreaths were a part of these celebrations as a sign of ever-increasing light and the promise of Spring.
For Jason@gardeninacity, winter is the time to pause for breath and mentally garden. He is contemplating the changes he wants to make with such lovely plants (and favorites of mine) as white Bleeding Heart, Great Merrybells, hardy geraniums and Phlox paniculata ‘David’. Sounds like heavenly plans to me.
Derek@A Student Gardener is closing up shop in his zone 3 Winnepeg garden. He has grown so many gorgeous new flowers in his gardens this past season and has finally had a chance to clean up the garden except for the rudbeckias. I am not sure if he finally decided to leave these for the birds. They will love him if he did.
Celebrating the arrival of winter, Pam@Pam’s English Garden did a wonderful retrospective of her gorgeous gardens. I am not sure which part I love the most, but her new pond is to die for and I love her veg garden area. Mosey over and take a peak. Pam says :
I greet the seasonal change with joy, celebrating in several ways — usually from my favorite chair by the fire in the den: I pour over photographs of the past year to see what worked and what didn’t, I list my New-Year gardening resolutions, I plan for the new gardening year, I purchase or borrow new gardening books to help with my planning, and I just sit and watch the winter birds.
A perfect winter to do list Pam!
Though the season has started with a nasty flu for Holley@Roses and Other Gardening Joys, she is celebrating the views of her garden from inside her house. I know I designed many of my gardens so I could enjoy them from inside the house too, even the winter views. Holley says that the glimpses from inside are just as important.
For a gardener that can’t go outside, being able to enjoy blooms and beauty from inside the house is both a Celebration – and a Lesson.
I know what you mean Holley.
Beth@PlantPostings is contemplating the two sides to the holiday season:
The busy, hectic, shopping, wrapping paper, and rushed to-do list side of our days. And the hushed, simple, powdered sugar-coated, stripped-down-to-the-essentials side.
Indeed I agree with Beth that every miracle of the season is a gift from the glittery ones to the simple little ones.
In her usual fashion, Loredana@Blogging Away has crafted a lovely poem for us to celebrate the season. She invites us to light a candle as she celebrates the light of the season. I concur with Loredana that light is such a powerful symbol of the season bringing us peace, love and hope.
Karin@Southern Meadows is celebrating the season in grand form. Read about her 3 unique Christmas trees, her gorgeous Advent wreath and St. Nicholas Day. Her post brought back such beautiful memories of putting out our shoes on St. Nicholas Day. And I must get a tree for my wildlife.
I hope you enjoyed this retrospective of these wonderful blog posts. Feel free to click through and read the entire post…you won’t be disappointed.
I leave you with a wonderful poem of the season. Please join me in spring for the next Seasonal Celebration. It will start March 1st.
The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper
So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!
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Next up on the blog: The end of the month brings a special Christmas post and the last Wildflower Tale.
I hope you will join me for my posts once a month at Beautiful Wildlife Garden. See my latest post.
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All original content is copyrighted and the sole property of Donna Donabella @ Gardens Eye View, 2010-2013. Any reprints or use of content or photos is by permission only.
What a great way to celebrate the shortest day of the year, Donna. It seems most appropriate that it’s a Saturday, meaning most of us can sleep in! 🙂
I just wish you could send us in Dutchland some of your delicious snow (where we are still with temps above freezing both night and day)!
So glad you enjoyed the post Ginnie….our temps have been warm and most of the snow is gone replaced with flooding. I am sure more snow will be coming soon.
Hi Donna, I enjoy my gardens from inside as well as out. That’s true in every season. I’m always looking out the window, checking it out, looking for wildlife (saw a fox recently). Also, from the window view I cannot see ANY weeds! lol
I want to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a joyful, peaceful, prosperous, and healthy new year.
I’ve enjoyed “getting to know you” this year.
Beth
It has been a joy Beth getting to know you too! Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Thank you for this beautiful post. I loved your writing, the poems and the snowy pictures. Just what I needed on this cold, icy day. Snow is coming later today, on top of the ice.
I plan on visiting all the posts you mentioned. Good day to light the fire and cozy up to it with my iPad and see everyone’s garden. I always borrow an idea or two.
I await the coming of spring with greatfulness for 2013.
Some ups and some downs, but many blessings.
Namaste
How wonderful Karen and I am so glad you enjoyed your visit. I hope you love the posts as much as I did.
Here’s to 2014!
As usual a great post and great summaries. I am also contemplating and enjoying the nature, but simply not updating my blog. Once the university closes down on Dec 24, I will start doing that. My favorite hobby, now, has become watching all the wildlives in the garden — birds, deer, squirrels, crows fighting and all the dead plants poking out from the snow. Both, winter and summer have their own beauties and I am learning to love both.
How do you plan to practice silence? Please let me know as I also read around and try to follow all these — inner peace, meditation, imagery — but I have found out that more I hear and learn from people, more better I become and also stronger I become with wisdom.
I know what you mean about watching nature and enjoying the other seasons for what they have to offer.
I look forward to your updates.
I am enjoying daily meditation, exercise (although not much yet), and watching the snow and critters in the garden. I find in my silent contemplation of the garden, many new ideas come to me along with much needed solace.
By the way, that poem is so lovely. Thanks for sharing. I have copied it in my notebook (diary).
I knew when I found the poem it was perfect for my solstice post.
We have experienced the same weather, deep in the last breaths of Fall. I wish you a very Merry Christmas and hope your New Year brings you all that you have planned.
Thank you Donna. Our snow is almost all melted with the warm weather and rain we just had…flooding has replaced the snow.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
So tomorrow will be our shortest day and the first few days of January will see a quite rapid change in the length of the days followed by a slower change, I am grateful that the first days change quickly, I don’t like the dark! Let’s enjoy the day as the moment when everything is renewing.
Our first few days do not change much but by mid January the change moves along faster….here’s to renewal from the Solstice into spring!!
I really enjoyed this post, Donna. And great choice of poems to close it with.
Chad I am so happy that you enjoyed the post.
Beautiful job Donna! Love how you share what your are doing and thinking to be a stronger, thriving person. Very inspiring. The poem is beautiful as well as your snow shots. We are supposed to get 4 in of snow over the night but tomorrow I’m running in a Christmas run, so the beat goes on. I need to find some silence during this winter season!
How very nice that you really enjoyed the post Andrea…I hope the weather cooperated with your run.
I love all those snowy photos Donna! I am also looking forward to noticing slightly longer days very soon. Thanks for all the links. 😀
All that snow is melted Cathy if you can believe it…but more will be coming soon! Here’s to longer days.
What beautiful thoughts! Winter seems like the perfect season to practice silence, especially when the snow blankets everything and everything seems to be so still.
My thoughts exactly Indie…snow quiets the world and allows introspection…glad you liked the post!
Beautiful post in every way, Donna. Blessings to you as we look forward to a new year of gardening challenges, joys, and fun!
Beth it has been a lovely year collaborating with you…I look forward to continuing and perhaps getting together on other projects! Many blessings to you in the new year!!
A marvelous post and one I would like to bookmark, so that I can come back and read again.
Oh how wonderful Denise. So happy that you really enjoyed the post. Happy Solstice and Merry Christmas!!
Thank you so much for hosting, Donna. I visited a few of the other posts and enjoyed them. I love this meme, it’s such a wonderful idea 🙂
I am so glad folks enjoy it. I will be creating a page this coming year finally so people can look back. Thanks Loredana for being a great supporter and contributor.