12/23/2025
Cheers to you, 2025
on solstice, contrast, and what you want
By HEIDI BARR, scandia mn
Here we are at the close of another year, the season of winter, the few days before Christmas. It’s been a year — one that has included some very hard days, loss, days that flew by in ease, growth, harvest, weeds, destruction, laughter, irritation, and beauty. Your year has probably held its own combination of contrasts. As we navigate the final days of 2025, here are a few poems, some recent, some from years past, to companion you on the way through the portal into what’s next.
First day of winter this year, looking across the road toward the setting sun.
As Mary Oliver Said: Joy Is Not Made To Be A Crumb
Last light
longest night
blessed be all
who look toward
that which is bright—
once heavy darkness
making room for opalite—
joy and grief walking
hand in hand
in ways that
feel right.
Last year, solstice time on the lake.
How to Winter
Accept cold as part of your experience,
remembering contrast is an important
element of true comfort.
Become acquainted with ice and snow,
exploring all the good things they can offer
(especially when accepting cold comes first).
Bring your own light when necessary
but don’t forget to sit for awhile
in darkness.
Upgrade to paid
X###############
With late December came another solstice: The end and the beginning. The sun continues to rise and set in an ancient rhythm, and the promise of light shines through the dark that falls early this time of year.
May the close of this year, a year that was full of hard things, and good things, and things that probably seemed too ordinary to notice, leave in its wake continued opportunities for stillness, peaceful movement, a greater capacity to find joy in shadow, and the kind of love that is a bridge between beliefs.
May your version of what is enough to live a beautiful life rise from any embers left in the ashes of the old.
My latest poetry collection
Ask Yourself What You Want and Don't Be Afraid of the Answer
What kind of energy
will you bring with you
as one year comes to a close
and another begins?
May it be the kind of energy
that turns gray winter days
into works of art
dripping with beauty
or allows something stuck
to flow more freely
than it has in awhile
or hovers like a fog
intent on coating everything
in a fine layer of silver mist
reminding you that
when you peer
through the gloom
with curiosity as your guide
it’s possible to find the sparkle.
Finding beauty in a broken world is creating beauty in the world we find.
-Terry Tempest Williams
