It is winter solstice again. We are very close to the sun now; roughly ninety one million miles. But due to the tilt of the earth, and our latitude here in Victoria, and our position in our orbit around the sun, we’re in the shortest days of the year. It’s dark here.

We are grateful this solstice. The days will get longer now. The sun will return.

This is thanks, in part, to the tilt of the Earth. The tilt of the earth is roughly twenty three and a half degrees. Like a spinning top, we spin and spin. Like a spinning top we sway and tilt. That wobbling is dynamic. It’s called axial precession. And we complete this circular motion once every twenty six thousand years. Of course, our solar system is also one small piece of a vast galaxy. Our galaxy is also spinning.

I don’t know if it’s possible to measure when our galaxy “completes” a spin and I have no idea how fast our galaxy moves. It’s huge. It has roughly a few hundred billion stars. And it’s very old. It’s around thirteen billion years old. Our galaxy is, of course, not alone in the universe. There are thought to be a couple hundred billion galaxies.

Awe.

Many of us are just barely aware that our little planet spins at all, not to mention our solar system or galaxy. Our planet is big to us. It fills our minds and sustains our lives.

Solstice is a nice time to meditate on our smallness. The smaller we know ourselves to be, the larger our gratitude.

But there are more reasons that we’re feeling grateful this solstice. We have amazing clients. The people we work with are inspiring. You keep us going.  Thank you so so much for doing such important work. It’s our honour to help you.