It happens every year and every year it is shocking. It is shocking how much faster the dark descends each day. To give you an idea of how fast this happens, I went to a site that records sunrise and sunset and the total number of daylight hours for our area. This past Monday the 23rd of October we had 10:29 daylight hours. On Sunday, October 29th, we will have 10:10 hours of daylight. That’s a whopping 19 minute drop in one week. It feels as if the dark is descending quickly, because it is!
How does one live in sync with this seasonal rhythm of darkening days? One of the first things I have noticed is that we tend to eat dinner earlier, not because we are hungry, but because it is so dark that all our body systems tell us to adjust: eat a bit earlier, go to bed earlier, rise later. There’s a slowing down.
It’s impossible to ignore the descent into the dark, but the upside is that it makes the light we do have all the more special.
Cow grazing at sunset.
In a season that is becoming darker by the day, I find myself looking for all the surprise moments of light.
And just maybe, that’s what we need to be doing all of the time – looking for surprise moments of light in the dark.
*If you are interested in checking out the daylight hours in your part of the world you can go here.
Pebbles and Clay 