December 6 - fragmented thoughts

Today is Saint Nicholas Day. The sun will set at 4:20 PM in Connecticut. It will set at 4:20 every day between Saint Nicholas Day and Saints Lucia's Day on December 13. After this sunset comes a little bit later. On the 14th it sets at 4:21. By the Winter Solstice, it doesn't set until 4:23. And on Christmas, after a four day rest in the sky, seemingly standing still, the sun begins its six month journey back north. 

On Saint Lucia's Day, on December 13, the oldest daughter in a Scandinavian family would wake the others, wearing a crown of lit candles. Who knows how this custom came about, but it seems like that crown of candles could represent the rays of the sun, on a significant day when the pattern begins to change. 

Personally, I don't worry about the story of the virgin birth. Lao Tsu was also said to have been born of a virgin mother—conceived by a shooting star, which isn't that far off from the truth, given that carbon and other minerals in our bodies were created when stars died.

It's funny. I know people really worry about things like the virgin 
birth and the physics of resurrection but these things never bothered 
me. Christ told us to love one another and that there's a loving, 
forgiving god at the heart of the universe. That feels like more 
than enough truth and good news to last me forever.

I do however firmly believe that Mary had birth pangs just like the 
rest of us.