Renewal

[Trevorum]

To all my friends here on Scouter.com,

 

a very Happy Solstice!

 

May our world renew iteself with vigor and beauty and may all our people find joy and peace

[DanKroh]

Thanks, Trev.

 

Happy Solstice to All! I for one am greatly looking forward to the return of the sun.

[packsaddle]

The new (solar) year is beginning...hoooray! Happy solstice to all.

[OldGreyEagle]

Oddly enough I also look forward to the return of the Son

[Aquila calva]

 

Before the marvel of this night

Adoring, fold your wings and bow,

Then tear the sky apart with light

And with your news the world endow.

Proclaim the birth of Christ and peace,

That fear and death and sorrow cease:

Sing peace, sing peace, sing gift of peace!

 

Awake the sleeping world with song,

This is the day our God has made.

Assemble here, celestial throng,

In royal splendor come arrayed.

Give earth a glimpse of heav'nly bliss,

A teasing taste of what they miss:

Sing bliss, sing bliss, sing endless bliss!

 

The love that we have always known,

Our constant joy and endless light,

Now to the loveless world be shown,

Now break upon it deathly night.

Into one song compress the love

that rules our universe above:

Sing love, sing love, sing God is love!

 

Jaroslav J. Vajda (b.1919)

 

[DanKroh]

this is one of my favorite Yule stories, which we have used in our Yule ritual:

 

THE FIRST SONG

taken from the CD 'This Winter's Night' by Mother Tongue.

 

This story begins a long long time ago when Earth and Sun made the first beings. -- the very first plants and animals and people.

 

It was springtime and the Sun shone warm and bright from His high perch above, and Earth, proud mother that She was, held and fed Her newborns and relished them with tenderness and love.

 

It was a time of joy, it was a time of great delight. The Moon waxed and waned time and again in the night sky, and the children of the Earth grew well and strong through Summertime. They played and danced and Earth and Sun watched over them.

 

Then Autumn came, and the Earth began to sleep much longer every day. She grew tired and pale. She could no longer feed Her children and had no strength to make new life. High above the Sun grew more distant and took longer to return each morning. The nights grew longer and cold winds blew where none had blown before.

 

And then, one day, Earth went to sleep and never did wake up. She wrapped Herself in a blanket of snow and rested Her tired head on pillows of dried leaves and She did not wake up. Her children could do nothing to rouse Her from her slumber. They prodded Her, they called Her, but She would not awaken.

 

In the sky, the Sun was nowhere to be seen and the children of the Earth felt fear and also felt despair. This was the longest night that they had ever known.

"What shall become of us" they pondered. "Earth Mother sleeps, and Father Sun is oh so far away that we can barely see Him in the sky. He is much too far to hear our call. What shall we do?"

 

So they brought their questions and their fears to the Moon, the sister of the Sun, for they knew not where else to turn. She closed Her eyes and took a slow deep breath and looked within Herself and awoke thoughts that had never been awakened until then.

She opened Her soft eyes and said "When hope is lost, the best way to get it back is with a song. Climb you the tallest trees, the biggest hills and the mountains and yule a song to reach the Sun.

 

Now 'yule' is a word from one of the worlds oldest tongues. It is related to words like 'yell' or 'yodel' and it means 'to call out in song'.

 

But the first beings had never heard a song so once again they sought the Moon's advice. "How shall we yule?" they asked. "How shall we sing a song?"

"Take the best of what you have," she said, "the best of what you are. Take what you love; take what you cherish most. Take your joys, your dreams, your fondest hopes and weave them all together in a sound."

And so they did. They climbed atop the tallest trees, the mountains and the hills. They stood in all the places that would bring them closest to the Sun. They shut their eyes and thought and felt the best of thoughts and feelings and dreamt the finest dreams. And as they did their voices rang out and made a bridge of song across the sky to reach the distant Sun.

 

He heard, and turned, and smiled, and wrapped Himself in all His light and warmth and sped to where the yuling voices called. As He drew near the sleeping Earth did stir and dreamed a dream of Spring. And so the wheel of life made its first turn, and hope and joy prevailed. And ever since, that time of year has been called Yule in honour of the song.

 

But the first song did not end. It had such power, such allure that the first beings kept singing it throughout, and then the second beings born of the Earth took up the song, as did the third and so it ever since has gone, through years and years until this very day.

 

At times the song is very soft and scarcely can be heard above the din and clatter of our lives, but when Yule comes it rises and swells in memory of that night when the Sun heard, and light and life returned.

 

And so do we upon (this) that longest night gather with those we love and who love us and stand upon the body of slumbering Earth and light the log with last years and lift our voices soaring to the Sun and join the song that first was sung so very long ago.

 

We sing our thanks to those who went before and sing our fondest wish to those who come after. We bask in the returning light of re-awakened hope and welcome YULE.

[SR540Beaver]

Happy Festivus to the rest of us!!!