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My room was pitch black when I woke up. There was so little light that I had to make my bed mostly by feel. People bemoan the dark evenings at this time of year; there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth when the clocks fall back and darkness arrives at 5pm. For me, the deep, dark mornings are worse. It feels wrong waking up in complete darkness. I like the sun to be, at the very least, making its presence known via a slight brightening of the morning sky. Just a dim grey instead of an inky charcoal, that’s all I ask. I want to believe it is a reasonable hour to get out of bed. Dark skies tell me otherwise.
I do love this time of year, though, in large part because it feels sad and pensive. The heaviness and grief ushered in by the fall are a necessary, if uncomfortable, turn of the wheel of the year. It can’t always be sunny, we can’t always be happy, and pretending otherwise makes us sick.
I’m thankful there is a season of gloomy skies and melancholy minds. I’m thankful for rainy days that invite me to wrap myself in a blanket and be a bit sad. I’m thankful for the early evening darkness that practically pulls down the covers and ushers me into bed. To every thing there is a season, and embracing this heavy season makes it possible to also embrace a season of lightness when the wheel turns again.
Plus, there’s no better time for a warm mug of tea, a maple scented candle, and a blanket over your lap.
Upcoming Release
I need to tell you about something once now, which I will then stop talking about for a month. A few years ago I accidentally wrote a Christmas song. I sat down to write, the vibes were there, it just happened.
A year or so after I wrote it, I taught it to one of my SONG choirs. They really loved singing it, which brought me so much joy! They requested we sing it again the next year - little sweeties that they were - so we did, and my joy was more than doubled.
Well, last August I invited four of those young singers, Mackenyn Cole, Alyx Dean, Stella Osen, and Avalon Stewart, to record vocals for Leave the Porchlight On. I thought I’d record the whole song myself, but I finally had to admit I was not going to have enough time to make it happen. So I teamed up with producer extraordinaire Adam Newcomb to get the thing recorded, and then I asked my very talented niece, Emily Ross, to create the album art for it. And voila!
Leave the Porchlight On comes out November 13th on Bandcamp and in all the streaming places. I will remind you of that once it is seasonally appropriate to do so.
xo
Shannon