Two days after Solstice, my garden lies snow-covered and still...

...yet I know there is life there, asleep and hidden, biding its time as the days grow longer by small, slow increments, turning towards spring.

This is a thought that fits my holiday mood: I'm grateful that myself, my friends and my immediate family have come through yet another year - if not completely unscathed, then at least mostly okay - that we're now past the darkest part of winter, that the light and new beginnings wait just around the corner. And most of all: that there will be another springtime, that life will go on, even after we do not.

And to counteract that last morbid thought, I want to wish everyone a happy, relaxing non-denominational winter holiday - may the coming year treat you with kindness and reward your efforts with success!