My Tale of the Winter Solstice
My Sons and Daughters; my Brothers and Sisters; let me share a tale of life. My tale begins at a time of the earliest time when we as humans marveled and blessed the passage of the sun and the moon through the heavens. Their passage provided us with warmth and light and the hopeful knowing that their passage was eternal. Many years progressed and as is too often the case, the humans took for granted the sun and the moon’s passage and seldom raised their voices in thanks or gratitude.
The sun was perplexed in this behavior exhibited by this new race. “My dear partner,” said the sun to the moon. “This race is very self-centered and only care about themselves. I think I will cut short my daily visits.”
“Don’t be too hard on them,” replied the moon. “They are only babies and new to all of this. Your light can sometimes be too strong and burn things. My light is soothing and a comfort to them during your sleep time.”
“I think you are too soothing,” replied husband sun.
“But you like my light that enfolds you while you sleep.”
“Yes, you are right. I will only reduce my light slowly. And we will see what will happen.”
The humans didn’t think much about shorten days but went about business as usual. And the light of days shorten and the nights lengthen. As the days got shorter and shorter the humans began to panic and still could only think about themselves.
Finally the day arrived when the light of day was very short.
“My dear partner,” said the sun to the moon. “The humans have not learned. I am not going to move any more. I will set still. And they will have to put up with only a little of my light and warmth.”
“Husband, that is cruel. They know no better,” replied the moon.
“Well that’s their problem not mine…”
“But there are the children. They have blessed and thanked me every night. And I know they have done the same with you. Is that not enough from the humans?”
“No,” replied the sun. “Let them deal with only a few hours of light a day and see how they like it. I am sitting still. And do not whisper to those children how to get me to move again.”
The moon, being the moon, knew that her husband was just hurt because he was not appreciated. She loved him but he could be stubborn. So as is sometimes typical of the moon, she still went against her husband’s wishes and whispered to the children in their dreams.
For three days the sun never moved and the humans were in great fear and did not know what to do.
But there were two little children, a brother and a sister who witnessed the joy and magic of life while the adults seemed to express little joy and only went about their routine activities of living. Over the years they had tried to tell the adults about the magic and joy of life. But to no avail.
The adults were scared but the children knew what the problem was and the solution to it. The moon had told them in their dreams. Their wisdom was of the magic and joy of life even though they were only children.
The humans had always wondered about the brother and sister. They knew they were different, but still did not pay any attention to them.
Because the humans were in so much fear they finally decided to listen to the children when they approached the adults. The day was dark and foreboding as the sun was not shining through a thick layer of clouds. The sun had taken a nap and had asked the moon to cover him so he could sleep and deprive the humans of even more of his light. The moon had agreed a little too easily and the sun was suspicious but still decided to nap. The moon just smiled….
“Life is not all work,” the children said to the adults while holding hands. “Life is magic and joy. We know the problem. The sun is upset and angry. You have taken it for granted that it would always provide light. The moon came to us in our dreams and told us what to do. You must just give blessings and gratitude to the sun and it will move once again. And the days will get longer once again.”
One particularly arrogant adult said, “What nonsense. These are only little children. What do they know? The moon talking to them is stupid and impossible. And our solution is as simple as saying thank you and expressing gratefulness.…”
At that moment, the moon knew what to do. She opened a small section of her blanket that was covering the sun; and a beam of his light busted through the clouds and fell on the children.
A miracle was set before the adults.
The light only lasted a few seconds and then it was gone. The day was once again dark and dreary.
Silence reigned as the adults were in awe of this magic of life.
For many millenniums humans remembered the little children and gave daily blessing and thanks to the sun and moon and all of nature. But gradually the memory faded and the adults lost the magic and joy of life. And the sun is once again considering not moving.
How will my tale end? The ending is not mine to say.
The ending is up to all of you.