Winter Solstice: About life in the darkness
Today, 16:59h. The sun is the furtherst away from the Northern Hemisphere it will be this year. It’s on its way back now. The light will return, spring will come. A new astronomical year has started.
Living in the darkness has been surprisingly easy so far. The regular daily rhythm with breakfast, lunch and dinner the whole year round at the same time, helps a lot. And the work just continues. Combine this rhythm with plenty of social activities, regular exercise, a good amount of music and a spoon of “Tran” (cod liver) and “Sana Sol” (some other vitamin liquid) each morning and you are good to go. At least that works for me. The calmness, the cosiness, the northern lights, the full moon, the starry nights and the good friends make the darkness a pleasure. Yet I am looking forward to seeing the return of the sun. To seeing the soft pastel colours of the landscape when the first light touches the snow covered mountains and the ice particles in the air.
Time flies when you’re having fun. The melancholy of the disappearing sun is now being replaced by the melancholy of the disappearing darkness and cosiness. And the melancholy of the fact my time here on Svalbard is finite and about to end next year. But so far I will enjoy the darkness, the light, the snow, the ice, the people.
Some landscape impressions of the polar night:



And this song is an unknown medicine against the winter blues:
Mooie woorden, mooie gedachtes, mooie muziek. Geniet van een mooie kerst met mooie mensen om je heen. X
For the moment you belong there.
Hoe ook in het donker toch het licht kunt zien. Merry Christmas and a happy new year.