Halfway Out of the Dark

There’s a British TV show called Doctor Who and one of their Christmas specials says “On every world, wherever people are, in the deepest part of the winter, at the exact midpoint, everybody stops, and turns, and hugs, as if to say “Well done. Well done, everyone! We’re halfway out of the dark.” Back on Earth, we called this Christmas, or the Winter Solstice.”

This year my halfway through the dark happened on January 15th on a day I spent snowshoeing and dog sledding in Saranac Lake with a group of friends even though the temperature was -1. It was cold and it was beautiful and all I can remember is thinking “thank you, thank you, thank you for this.”

Thank you for the startling beauty of a frozen world. Thank you for reminding me that I am alive, that I’m here, and that life is spectacular no matter how cold it gets.

Here’s to being halfway through the dark.