Camminando and Thoughts | Listening to the Body, During the December Solstice Meditations

The Sun setting framed by the ruins of the 69th Street Transfer Bridge at the Hudson River Waterfront, 20 December

The 2015 December Solstice has just happened, on December 22 04:38 UTC. It is a special time of the year, the moment when the sun inverts its apparent path from north to south in the south hemisphere or from south to north in the northern hemisphere. The etymology of the word solstice clearly expresses the astronomical properties: solstice comes from the Latin 'sol' (sun) and 'sistere' (to stand still). It is the shortest day and longest night of the year marking the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere; in the southern hemisphere the solstice marks the beginning of summer, with the longest day and shortest night.
The solstices, such as the equinoxes, are also an astonishing proof of how geometry is not only an abstraction to assist in the understanding of the physical world, but has a crucial role in the functioning of the universe. The geometry of the sun is an example in how day-night cycles and seasons are determined by geometric properties, namely the 23.45° angle of the axial tilt of the earth axis —that is the angle between the orbital plane of the earth rotation around the and the equatorial plane. This angle also defines the tilt of the ecliptic plane and the plane of celestial equator.

 It is a time of the year marked by celebrations in different cultures, including Christmas, Kwanzaa or Hanukkah.  Holidays and celebrations almost seems to compensate for the lack of light and cold season in the northern hemisphere. 
The solstice it also a time for reflections. 2015 has been another difficult year, marked by divorce and harassment, which have experienced in different forms and from different people from my husband and my New York neighbors. Celebrating the solstice it for me it has become another metaphor, where the darkness of this time of hatred will change path toward light of compassion and support.

A pale sun rising in Central Park, during the solstice day, the shortest day of the year