Platypus Thoughts

I grew up in South Florida where the difference between the number of hours of light in the day did not change so drastically from summer to winter as it does here in New England. Ditto the temperature from season to season. The fall was not heralded by wild displays of color in the trees and forests, and there were not long, bitter cold stretches that made me long for spring. But most of all, there was not that wonderful moment when I first see tiny yellow, red and green buds that promise there is once again hope that soon my hands will be in the dirt once again.

So, while I do not miss living in “God’s waiting room” as my sister in Miami Beach says – and I especially do not miss the dark – winters do aggravate my underlying depression over holidays in general. (Another story.)

As the days grow shorter and the sunny days are farther and farther apart as well as colder and colder, I long for light. Our first holiday decorations are the quintessential candles in all of the windows our neighbors can see. Ten of them – we live on a corner. These stay on all day and night for at least a month.

Twenty years ago, we had a pergola installed on our back deck, visible to all who turn our corner into the ’hood. The pergola has lights around the top that come on every evening at dusk – as late as 9pm in the summer and as early as 4pm in the winter – and stay on for several hours. Three years ago, we started putting a tree in the middle of the deck under the pergola with it’s own hundreds of lights. That tree, too, stays up for at least a month and shines for hours every night.

After the holidays, as the days begin to be noticeably longer, the lights come down. Except this year we have left one candle in a front window. No one has asked yet, but it is our symbol of our belief that hope is alive, that peace is possible, that justice and equality – as well as democracy – will prevail, and that there will be brighter times.

Can’t remember where I read it, but it is only when it is darkest that the stars shine the brightest.

Isn’t it dark enough?