Pssst! You! Yeah, you... are a passenger on a planet... on a blue-green planet that's orbiting a golden star. And right now we're at the point in our orbit where your shadow is as long as it ever gets at mid-day. This tells you why we're starting a new calendar and why we're making New Year's resolutions. But your shadow tells you this ONLY IF you know how to read shadows.

Our ancient, sky-watching ancestors knew how read shadows. And because they did, we have clocks and calendars. Of course, our ancient ancestors were devoted observers of nature. They observed that anything blocking the sun's light casts a shadow - and the lower the sun is in the sky, the longer the shadows are on the ground. Our ancestors also noticed that at this time of year our nights are as long as ever.

Of course, night is actually our planet's shadow. Your shadow is your little personal night. Once every 24 hours your shadow merges with your planet's shadow and you're enveloped in darkness for hours. Your shadow remains indistinguishable from your planet's shadow - until morning.

Our Earth is tilted at a 23.5 degree angle to its yearly path around the sun, and right now our hemisphere is tilting away from the sun. We're spending more time in our planet's shadow than at any other time of year. Since we're in the northern hemisphere, the mid-day sun is as low in our southern sky now as it ever gets. And your mid-day shadow is as long as it ever gets. This is showing you that we're at the spot in our orbit where our north pole is pointing directly away from the sun. This spot is what we call the winter solstice.

Meanwhile, our little blue-green planet just keeps on spinning and orbiting. As we orbit beyond our winter-solstice point, we spend less and less time in our planet's shadow. Our nights begin to shorten, and your mid-day shadow begins to shorten. So now, for the first time in 6 months (for the first time since we were on the opposite side of our orbit), our days are lengthening.

Our ancestors celebrated the winter solstice because of what's ending, because of what's beginning, and because of the power of this transition. At a transition point, change is inevitable. If you want to change something in yourself, it's easier to do it when change is happening naturally anyway - when a new cycle is starting. When a cycle is in full swing, it's as hard to introduce change as it is to swim against the current. So now is when we start a new calendar and resolve to change for the better.

Our word, celebrate, comes from a Latin word that means, "to set into motion." What am I setting into motion now? What's my New Year's resolution? I'm resolving to learn how to live by the light of the star that we're orbiting... because it's a renewable source of power.

This is Harriet Witt, your guide for this little ride on our passenger planet.


If you have any questions, drop Harriet an email: harriet@passengerplanet.com


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