The Winter Solstice

My seat in the abbey church faces due east where there is a large window. At this time of year in Advent, when I arrive at my place for matins at a little before 6:30 a.m., what I see in that window is black sky. If it is clear, I might see a star or some other celestial body low on the horizon. The bell rings and the night silence is broken by the words, “O Lord open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.” For monks, that is the beginning of the new day, a new day of grace. We ask God, the Creator of heaven and earth, to open our mouths to praise the one who is the author of all good gifts.  Most of all, by the very fact that we are standing here in choir, we praise God for the gift of another day of life. As we pray the psalms, the black sky gently changes to a blue-black. The same color of my favorite ink back when we still used fountain pens. Then, almost imperceptibly, the sky begins to lighten enough that I can make out the shape of a large evergreen on the lawn outside the abbey church. By now, we are listening to a reading that has been chosen to help us reflect on the feast or the season. At the bottom of the window, the sky is a pale blue. Sunrise is not far off. We are at the high point of the office; we are singing the Benedictus, the Gospel canticle of Zechariah. Every day we pray the same words “In the tender compassion of Our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.” And here we are, waiting for the sun to shine on us who have spent so many hours in the darkness, eagerly anticipating the joy that light and warmth will bring.

It might seem odd to start a blog about gardening on the shortest day of the year, but it does seem appropriate to me. On the darkest day of the year, there is virtually nothing growing here in Northern New Jersey. So, in one sense, we are starting at zero. My intention is to chronicle the gardening year from start to finish, so, today is both the end of the previous year and the beginning of the next. In that sense, this is an ideal place to start. Trust me, though, progress will be quite slow for a while! I hope you will stay with me, though