It’s Christmas Eve and the Holiday Season is in full swing. Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s, all the good stuff.
All of these traditions are very old, of course, but the oldest holiday isn’t on any calendar – it’s written in the Laws of Physics.
All these Holidays, historically, were formed around celebrating a physical fact- the Solstice- the time of year when darkness yields and light begins slowly coming back (at least in the Northern hemisphere).
Our ancestors marked this with rituals.
In Jerusalem’s Temple, a single day’s oil burned for eight days when naturally it should have only lasted one.
Later, came stories of a divine child born in darkness, representing the “Light of the World” (i.e. the divine presence in all of us.)
Different stories, same truth – new light bringing renewal.
The week between Christmas and New Year’s, when the whole country closes down? It’s there for a reason. It’s not dead time, it’s white space. Some fill it with family gatherings, others seek solitude. The physics doesn’t care. Light returns either way.
We could ignore this natural pause, and lose ourselves in catching up on work, streaming queues, or mindless activities and restaurant chains. Many do. Or we could choose to notice. Choose to reflect.
On life. On love. On what actually matters to us and carries on, in spite of the harsh cold, wrathful conditions outside.
Whether in someone else’s house filled with family or alone in a cabin in the woods (or anywhere else for that matter)- the choice is yours. The physics of light’s return offers a gift: the gift of white space. The permission to pause. To notice. To reset.
Not because tradition demands it but because the universe designed it. And that’s too rare to waste.
PS – We’re taking our own white space until January 2nd. Happy Holidays!
