The Darkest Night

It is here.  The longest night.  The word solstice is derived from the latin sol, which means, "Sun" and sistere, which means, "to stand still."  This year, I feel in equilibrium with the darkness, and one of my favorite poems comes to mind: 

To Know the Dark

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.

To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,

and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,

and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.”

- Wendell Berry

from “To Know the Dark”, Farming: A Handbook

(Harcourt Brace, 1970)



Making Light

We have entered the late phase of fall. We live in the Northern Hemisphere. Not the northern most hemisphere, but we're closer to the pole than many. This means that the days get shorter and shorter as the winter comes closer. By Winter solstice, it is dark here by 4:00 in the afternoon. This can be tough for a sun-loving gal like myself, and so I do what I can to invite the light into my life whenever possible. For Halloween this past weekend, Bronwyn and I set up luminaria along our driveway and fun and spooky pumpkins on our porch to invite the goblins to our door. I used three candles in each pumpkin instead of just one, and the effect was very cheerful (if a spooky pumpkin can be described that way).


We had a great time seeing everyone's creative costumes and got rid of most of our candy!

I hope everyone else had a fun and safe Halloween!

In the realm of BCharmer news, I am excited to tell you that I have started a newsletter! I'm not sure how often it will come out yet (maybe quarterly?), but the first one has already been sent out. If you would like to receive it (with coupons and extra studio news), you can sign up on the right hand side of my blog here. It's easy to sign up; just enter your name and e-mail address, and then confirm your e-mail when prompted to. That's it! Cheers!