Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

Steady and generous, my White Meidiland rose bush somehow manages to push out elegant little sprays of creamy white roses throughout the winter.

Just a few days now, no matter which hemisphere you live in. Change. Both imperceptible and powerful, depending on whether you’re paying attention,  . . . in ratio depending upon the noise level within your heart and psyche.

Plants know. Armed with an innate photoperiodism and circadian rhythms, they ‘know’ when the pendulum of day length begins to swing back in the other direction, and all sorts of processes are switched on and off within them because of it. We are no different, not really, but because of our ability to control our environments to some extent, we’ve certainly lessened our conscious awareness of these swings of the pendulum, and in many cases made it possible to live in near complete denial of these elemental rhythms of the seasons.

Do yourself a favor, as a child of this planet; carve out a window of time, no matter how tiny, a momentary, miniature holiday. Walk outside into whatever weather the day is offering and plant an ‘awareness stake’ in the ground of this nearly completed year. If there is sun, look into it, let it warm your face and imprint its signature upon your inner clocks. If there is no sun, then get down low to the Earth, and touch it, aligning yourself with the poles, laying on your back and looking up, into the grey or the blue, or the black sky, above. Take several deep, cleansing breaths and linger for as long as your inner compass directs. Find some marker, some symbolic element to gather, to bring into your living space, to symbolize this passage and your deliberate honoring of it.

The very same spray of White Meidiland roses pictured in the sunset scene above, only a few days later, cut and brought indoors to help mark the season and celebrate the approaching solstice. (Note: both of these photos were shot with my iPhone and processed within the Camera+ app.)