Happy #Winter#Solstice! Only 5.5 hours of sunlight graced my subarctic habitat on this shortest day of the year. How do tiny chickadees survive the frigid 18-hour nights?
Eat. Shiver. Repeat.
During #Alaska 's dark winters, chickadees shovel in #food to gain 10% or more of their body weight every day. Then they enter a hypothermic state, reducing their metabolisms, and use that extra fat to shiver themselves warm all night long.
What would that look like for a human? I weigh about 130 lbs. Imagine if I ate enough in one day to tip the scale at 145, then shivered off that 15 lbs overnight, waking up at my original weight.
Next time someone complains about #holiday weight gain, tell them to be glad they don't have to lose it chickadee-style! (And maybe hang out a suet cake for these incredibly tough little #birds.)
In just over an hour, it will be the Winter Solstice, and though the coldest part of Winter is yet to come, it still means more light from now on. More light is welcome, for certain, if for no other reason than to lift spirits (or garden, which certainly lifts mine!).
Winter solstice in Newgrange in Ireland. Newgrange is one more ancient passage monument aligned for the sun to traverse a long passage and illuminate an interior chamber on the winter solstice.
Thinking of it today, but also looking forward to visiting it again in early 2024.
A few weeks ago, I was trying to explain to our kiddo why I think the solstice is so special, saying what I like about the solstice is that it's inclusive, you don't have to believe in anything, or even celebrate it, it just happens!
I'm not sure that really clicked for me until I put it into words. 😊 But the more I think about it, the more I think about how cool and special it really is. Everyone everywhere on the planet experiences it, whether they want to or not, even if they're aware or not. But I think just being aware makes it feel more special to me and helps me feel more connected to everything. ✌️💖️ 🧘
Look upon the cold and the dark and know it will last forever
Every breath keeps the rock from touching the bottom, Sysiphus
The air you breathe, the food you eat, the water that falls from the sky, are all inexorably linked together in a cycle that spawned you and will consume you
As we huddle together in the dark, remember that this light is all we we have
It's the solstice in Australia. Happy Litha to all who celebrate 🙂
In the summer
I stretch out on the shore
And think of you
Had I told the sea
What I felt for you,
It would have left its shores,
Its shells,
Its fish,
And followed me.