The Darkness of Winter Can Bring Hope

I hope everyone had a wonderful Solstice and now, as we enter the next cycle, are we ready for the challenges? We're into the deep winter in the Northern Hemisphere now. Until the Equinox in March, we're at the point of time where families would gather together in smaller groups for warmth and protection. It was an indoor time for most, time to sit closer to the fires and work on mending torn clothing, making new items for the upcoming year, and telling tales at night. Those tales might be funny, but also, many time, were the oral history of the clan or the larger people. 

Tales by the fireside became the oral history of a people and
the foundations of their beliefs and relationships. All of
that from winter's cold grip. Even winter has something
to give, while leeching the warmth from the world. 

Most tribes had a circumscribed view of the world consisting of "us" and "them". "Us" would consist of the family, the larger extended family, and outliers into less direct relationships. "Them" would consist of the people two days over who competed for the same food supplies when such resources were in limited supply. "Them" often would be an enemy, until or unless there was a reason to bond together. Marriage would work for bonding, so would warfare against a larger foe. 

Opposing viewpoints are common among people. When larger
groups have opposing viewpoints, it can often lead to
conflict instead of discussion. 

And there I go. A posting about a relatively peaceful time of the year when people spent valuable time together working on creative tasks became a posting about opposing tribes contemplating warfare against each other. Sheesh! Let's pull this post back into the peaceful, shall we? 

Here is a turf house from Viking times. It's part of a long
article about houses of this type with lots of pictures
and diagrams. Interested in taking a closer look? Here's a link. 

In the deep of winter, when the snows were deep and the hunters couldn't go out because the weather was too fierce, stored foods became a lifesaver. Here's where the gathering and drying skills of the women became essential to seeing the snows melt in the spring. Without adequate stored foodstuffs, the tribe would starve. The hunters still went out into the cold to set snares for smaller animals, and sometimes to hunt for the larger ones - deer, for one. But in the deep cold, even the hunters were pulled back to the tribe. Being a part of a tribe meant surviving until the warm returned. 

Pull together to make it through the darkness of
winter, but also think of the future. 

So as we enter these dark months of deep winter here in the north, take stock of your riches. Your family and friends are your lifelines through the darkness of the winter. They will throw the cording towards you, only asking you to take hold and grip hard as they pull you away from the chill and into the warmth of friends and family. I'll be taking a few days off from blogging while I celebrate three days off with DH for the holidays. Have a safe and wonderful Christmas or celebration of choice, and I'll be back on Wednesday morning - the start of my four-day end of the year sale. Oy!!!