Happy Winter Solstice, my friends! This year that’s December 21^st with winter arriving at 10:59 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. It’s the day of the year with the shortest number of daylight hours, the long night when winter begins.

The sun is at its furthest point south in the sky. That means it’s also the day the Earth begins the second half of its annual journey around the sun. From today until the summer solstice in June, the days – or more correctly the number of daylight hours – will increase each day. It’s the first step in the season’s march toward spring.

I find hope in those additional minutes of daylight and find it a bit ironic that the day that begins the season of cold and dark is actually the day the light begins to return.

While that may be hard to believe when temperatures drop (dare I say plummet) as winter progresses, minute by minute, the days grow longer. In the afternoon as I leave the office, each day I look forward to the additional minutes of twilight, even though it fades far too quickly to dark.

Personally, I’d like to curl up in a cave and hibernate until spring. But that’s not to be, so I console myself by counting down the days until the Vernal Equinox (coming to a garden near you on March 20, 2022 at 11:32 a.m. Easter Daylight Time).

On this first day of winter, there are 89 days until spring.

Winter has arrived. But it’s also on its way out.