Winter Spiral 2020
As the skies darken and we savor even the dimmest sunshine, that which inspired us during spring and summer – early morning birdsong, budding trees, shimmering lakes, juicy tomatoes – exists now only in our memories (perhaps also in a few jars of sweet jam or tangy pickles in the pantry). So, we north easterners have learned to create rituals that keep ourselves connected and inspired. The joy and engagement with life that came easily towards us through the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of summer now must be discovered in other ways. While the outward busyness of warm summer days and nights transforms into an inward winter busyness of reflection, appreciation, contemplation, reconciliation, and visioning, we teachers seek to create experiences that connect children with the polarity of light and dark inherent in the seasonal New England year.
The journey toward the Winter Solstice can be likened to the shape of a spiral. If one begins at the periphery and travels towards the center, one gets the sense of being drawn closer and closer inward –the same gesture we make during late fall when both the temperature and the light drops. We stay in, we cuddle in, we do all we can to keep the heat in; every gesture is one of inwardness. And what do we find when we get in? How long do we stay in before we go back out? And what do we need in order to go back out?
These are some of the questions we considered as we built this year’s Winter Spiral, a 2020 version of our Advent Spiral. Walking the Winter Spiral allows the children to practice how to move forward into darkness and towards inwardness without getting lost or stuck, and how to trust that they will find sources of light that will guide their individual paths out into the world.
This year’s Winter Spiral has been built outside by hardworking students in grades 6, 7 and 8. As each student walks the spiral, they will add their gift from one of the four kingdoms of nature – mineral, plant, animal, human. Each offering will become a light for the next child to behold on their own journey into and then out from the spiral. Upon reaching the center each child will discover a golden beeswax candle for them to take out of the spiral and out into the world.
When your child returns home from their Winter Spiral walk with their beeswax candle, we encourage you and your child to find a special place in your home for this light, knowing that the symbolic nature of these nuanced festivals is most accessible to children when combined with a shared activity and a reverent gesture. During this season of darkness, we encourage you and your family to look towards the gifts of nature, to your rituals-new and old, and to each other to find sparks of light, which will grow and guide each of us as we move together through the darkness and towards the light.
A seventh grader walks the spiral.