The Baboon Congress

Darkness, Darkness

64 Comments

Today’s guest post comes from Barbara in Robbinsdale.

A couple of times a year, the sun comes in my south facing bedroom window at just the right angle to warm my face while waking me up.

Sunlight!

This morning being a “day off” in the midst of the merry-go-round that is December, I let myself stay in bed – watch the designs on the insides of my eyelids, and let my mind drift. This kind of quiet time happens so rarely, and I encountered this perception: Here I am, one of billions of humans who, at some point today, will get up while my side of earth is facing the sun, basking in its light and warmth. We will run around and do stuff for roughly two-thirds of this rotation. Then, while our side of the earth slips into darkness, we’ll lie down for roughly the remaining one-third of it, to “re-charge the batteries” while asleep. We will all get up tomorrow and do it again, for probably thousands of more times.

But ironically, right now we get sunlight for only one-thirdof the spin, which means we spend about eight of our waking hours in (relative) darkness, too. (This would have been much more noticeable before all the electric lights.)

Fireplace, sort of

This year I decided to do something about all this dark in my environment – I asked for, and have received, one of those cute little heaters disguised as a fireplace. I usually don’t like fake things, but this is close enough to a real-looking fireplace, that it’s helping me with winter’s cold and the dark. I’ll find myself edging closer to as I’m reading. (Now I just need a fireplace sound-track.)

Luckily, this being the end of December, we’re at the turn-around point. But it will be a while till we’re out of the long, dark nights.

How do you cope with the shortest days of the year?

64 thoughts on “Darkness, Darkness”

    1. Clyde, have you read No More Sleepless Nights by Hauri and Linde? I have just started reading this book which seems to be filled with excellent information about sleep disorders. I don’t know if the suggestions in that book would solve your problem of not being able to get enough sleep. I think the information found there might be of some help.

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      1. I was referred to a sleep clinic, but on the basis of my pain history, they said they would have little to offer me. Panera is once again my solace, a sort of pathetic one, but any high-sugar carbs in a pain storm.
        Dale, I like being woken up by the sun,way back when our kids were small, especially in a tent. The best of all long day wake-ups was going to get cows in a cool damp NE MN early morning. The best of all short day wake-ups was to go out to the barn and wake up the animals and feel the sun come up through the frost coated barn windows. The sun hit those windows even later because it has to rise over a high hill.

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        1. I was afraid that sleep specialists might say that they can’t do much to help you. In the book I am reading they suggest that one thing you shouldn’t do is become overly concerned about not getting enough sleep. You can get by with less sleep than you prefer and it is better if you don’t focus too much on that problem. I thought that was helpful information and worth taking into consideration coming from a leading specialist on sleep disorders..

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        3. just pointing out in case you missed it that todays author is bir not dale. dale may well be letting the sun dance on his eyelids but bir is posting
          nice job bir

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  2. Good morning. The shortest day of the year is also the birthday of a member of my family. We try to make sure that we have a nice birthday celebration because that birthday could be over shadowed by Christmas if it isn’t given enough attention .Thus, we try to make the darkest day of the year one of the brightest days of the the year by celebrating an important birthday.

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  3. I’m one of the lucky ones, short days don’t bother me, actually I relish them. On dark afternoons, that’s when it’s time to brew a perfect cup of tea, light a bunch of candles, and cozy up with a good book. In Denmark we have a word that doesn’t have an English counterpart, the word is “hygge.” Hygge is part state of mind, part physical coziness that includes comfort and warmth, and good smells. As we get close to Christmas, a batch of gløg, a few Christmas cookies, soothing music and, again, a lot of lit candles help make things hyggelig. I love this time of year when the house is suffused with the smell of fir, cinnamon and vanilla, and oranges studded with cloves, and cookies baking in the oven.

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  4. the dark days do make a difference. i wa sin alaska a couple years ago in luly when the sun never really set and i couldnt help but think how the opposite of the calendar must feel when the sun never really comes up. i think i would have difficulty for an extended period with no sun. as it is i share part of pj’s hygge mentality and enjoy the cozy of the kitchen and the bath at this time of year when the urge to go putz in the yard or the garage goes away with the 5 oclock daily reentry to the womb.
    i have for the past 25 years had kids activities to deal with. winter was basketball and synchronized swim. i was the shuttle and the encouragement and the dark made it more inviting to go wait inside with them than to sit in the car or out in the neighboring park. today it is a bit of a break before heading back to theater lessons after the holidays but that is the agenda for the one daughter who is into that stuff.
    the morning light is a fun variable at my house, i dont have and window treatments os sun up is the real deal. the dogs and cats and critters all get cranked up around it and the day can not escape the reality of a new beginning. this time of year the house has been up an hour or so by the time the sun comes into the picture. the short end of the day on the other end is the more noticeable. nine hours after the high noon proclamation in june is glory that vs 4 1/2 hours in december. it is a change in perspective that requires some good planning. in the summer a walk works. in the winter it can too but i am apt to find something more cozy and restful rather than outdoor and contemplative. the appeal to the tropics and the beautiful weather is obvious. the opportunity to hunker down and find a slot of time to claim for yourself comes yearly to we midwesterners who enjoy the long quiet spells that ebb and flow in our part of the world and will for the next 1000 or so days and nights here and at birs house.
    enjoy the days getting longer. that feels good doenst it.

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  5. Today I am baking. I will make julekage and stollen. I never thought about it much, but i always like to take the week of Christmas off work and just stay home and bake and take care of my family, which is a good way of instilling Hygge at our place.

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    1. I’ve been in the kitchen as well today. I’m ahead of schedule (so rare…) so thought I’d stroll on the trail a bit.

      I don’t have S.A.D. but my sleep cycle is definitely tied to the sun. In the winter I have to have an alarm clock; my current clock actually lights up over a 15-minute period, which helps me enormously. Before this alarm clock, I could get out of bed, hit the snooze alarm and actually go back to bed and fall back asleep in that 7 minutes! In the summer I don’t need an alarm clock at all – as soon as the sun starts to come up and the birds start to wake up, sleep is done for me.

      I’ve always wondered that I don’t have jet lag problems with this kind of sleep pattern, but luckily I don’t!

      Happy Solstice to all my baboon pals!!

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  6. Here’s a message from a FB friend: “Heads up everyone: Winter Solstice arrives at 11:11 am CST. We’re getting ready to head outside. Now here’s what you do… at precisely 11:11, face to the south, and lean forward. Let’s get this old girl rotating back to the sun again. Everyone ready? Tilt!”

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  7. Last night I made a chicken dish with Gjetost melted in the pan gravy. It was wonderful. I never used gjetost for something like that before. Talk about hygge!

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      1. I had forgotten the other event with Brunost (parent cheese of Gjetost): (I looked it up, hoping to find a pronunciation as I’ve never known how to say it):
        In January 2013, the Bratli Tunnel at Tysfjord was damaged when a lorry load of caramelised brunost caught fire. The high concentration of fat and sugar in the cheese caused it to burn fiercely at sufficiently high temperatures that the fire was still burning five days later.
        So I’m glad to hear that Renee lived to tell the tale of incorporating it into gravy.

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        1. Zounds! Had I know that I would have worn a hazmat suit when I made the gravy. Do you think it will combust if I reheat it in the microwave?

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  10. I always look forward to today because it’s the first day of the start of days getting longer, which means spring and golf season are not that far off.
    I see surviving winter solstice as a turning point, sort of a “Hey, Nature, we took your best shot, you tried to make us think that the light would eventually diminish to nothing and life as we know it would end, but we’re on to your trick and we know that to everything there is a season, turn, turn, turn.

    I’ll celebrate by going for a skate on the river today.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  12. I made a big ol’ apple pancake in my cast iron pan this morning for husband, son, son’s girlfriend, and even son’s girlfriend’s dog. We all cheered at 11:11. Pretty mellow morning.

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  13. December I can deal with – it’s when the days are still shortish and the weather is colder in January/February that I start to get a bit batty (or at least more batty than usual). Two things help: getting out on an ice rink and moving around in the sunshine (with a good long pause facing the sun so it can warm my cheeks), and a trip to the Como Conservatory (where I can sit on a bench and smell warm soil and greenery and pretend it is spring).

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    1. You’re right, Anna. The opening days or weeks of any unpleasant period are easy enough to handle. The middle of something bad is not too difficult, either. Where I have trouble is the three-fourths mark. You have already suffered a lot and yet you know there is a lot of crap coming up. When I ran track in high school, I all but died on the third lap of a four-lap race. By the time I was fully into the last lap I hurt so much I couldn’t feel anything, and there was the comfort that I probably would finish before too long. In terms of a Minnesota winter, late February is the time when my eyes are darting around manically and there is something in my laugh that frightens people. I once counseled a man who was moving to Minnesota. My main advice was to never make an important decision in February. He told me later that my advice scared him and make him wonder about my mind, but after three Minnesota winters he considered it the wisest thing he ever heard.

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  14. Sleep. I go to bed late and read til even later. Then I sleep, preferably with kitty at my feet, until I’ve hit the snooze button or just slept through the alarm for about an hour, sometimes longer.

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  15. another thing to do on solstice is to go to sherrilees solstice shindig. it was wonderful. baked brie with raspbery sauce, ruben mini finger food, prancer punch with raspberry sorbet as the floating nectar sweets to die for and the trading of the silly gifts, i ended up with the raven from steves basement that linda yuled up for the occasion. does he have a name steve or can i just cal him yul?

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    3. Yul had a spruce branch to perch on, decorated with holiday bling, and a festive candy-cane striped neck wrap with jingle bells on it. He looked quite handsome, I thought.

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  16. OK, a number of people have said Sleep and/or snooze. There were birthday and Solstice parties, lots of cooking and baking, leaning forward to face the south, ice skating (rink and river), and a lovely concept called “Hygge. I should mention singing and dancing – both of which I’ve had the opportunity to do lately, if not right on the Solstice. And here comes “gather with family” in the next few days. Did I miss anything?

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