I know this kind of cold.  I grew up with it in Chicago.  The toll it takes on bodies and body joints, the need to wear gloves while driving, the feeling you simply won't get warm for days or perhaps longer, the feeling of being cold 'in your bones' is in no way desirable.  It makes one want simply to hunker down and stay 'inside'.

It is understandable that ancient cultures burned things around the solstice.  We begin to wonder if the cold will ever leave.  We want to be reminded that light will one day begin to increase.  We need the warmth.

Perhaps in no recent year have I had more of a hunger for that strong fire, that strong symbol, not to mention its heat.  The recent cold made this year's tree all that more resistant to catching on fire- there is a sermon somewhere in that.

Times of cold and dark are not limited to January. Sometimes they come in May and sometimes in August.  The periods of our life which bring a deep chill, bring the desire to stay 'inside' are not limited by the calendar.  It is in those times when the gathered community also serves to stir up fire and warmth, not to push us into a place we are not, but to hold before all of us that life is indeed cyclical.  There will always be seasons of cold and seasons of warmth, seasons of darkness and seasons of light.

Thus we gather each year in a yard around a tree donning gloves and scarves and our hopes.

Blessed Season after the Epiphany,

Todd Donatelli