Good Solstice to all! Light, life, peace and joy to you and yours.
The year's longest night -  "Mother Night". In darkness Frigga birthed  the Light  once more. Baldur, who controlled the sun and rain and brings fruitfulness to the fields, was born.  Frigga's blessing is  for all birthing women, and for Mother earth.
  Gods and goddesses of light were being born during the Winter Solstice. The Egyptian Isis brought forth Horus of the winged Sun. Mithras, the Unconquered Sun of Persia,  born during  solstice. Japanese goddess of the sun Amaterasu soltice born. Rhea gave birth to Saturn (son of the Father of Time Hephaestus was concieved by Hera, and Quetzalcoatl and Lucina also celebrate birthdays at this time. Lucia, saint or Goddess of Light, is  crowned with candles to carry us through the darkness.  Sarasvati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge and the Queen of Heaven, birth is also celebrated during this season.Hopi- Kachinas return now atSolstice and the Deer mother's fertility dance for earth is remembered.Hestia(Roman Vesta) of hearth fires is quenched to be rekindled at this time in Kwanzaa celebrations the first fruits are celebrated.

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And don't think the garden loses it's ecstasy in winter. It's quiet, but the roots down there are riotous. ~  Rumi

 ''Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality.''  ~ Andy Goldsworthy

 ''Nature looks dead in winter because her life is gathered into her heart. She withers the plant down to the root that she may grow it up again fairer and stronger. She calls her family together within her inmost home to prepare them for being scattered abroad upon the face of the earth.'' ~Hugh Macmillan

 ''It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.'' ~John Burroughs

 ''What a severe yet master artist old Winter is.... No longer the canvas and the pigments, but the marble and the chisel.'' ~ John Burroughs

“Love is a flower that grows in any soil, works its sweet miracles undaunted by autumn frost or winter snow, blooming fair and fragrant all the year, and blessing those who give and those who receive.”~ Louisa May Alcott

 

December 13th 2013 snow is falling heavily upon cities like Cairo and Jerusalem, this is first blanket of snow laid upon this lands in  roughly a century. It was creating havoc and disruption to the norm. I would also guess in the eyes of some there was wonder and perhaps even some awe and  perhaps some enjoyment of the novelty and the crystalline beauty of frozen water . Most of the middle east is desert land and water is a precious thing in such lands and even snow and ice bring moisture to land that thirsts. Here in my home lands we have a snow cover and I am grateful for any precipitation that can help add to out withering streams and rivers and  moisten our farmlands.The cold forms of water may be frightening and dangerous to drive in, challenging to walk upon but do take time to appreciate the  beauty of the frozen environs

Ice

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

''Ice is water frozen into a solid state. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions. The addition of other materials such as soil may further alter its appearance.Ice appears naturally in forms of snowflakes, hail, icicles, ice spikes and candles, glaciers, pack ice, frost, and polar ice caps. It is an important component of the global climate and plays an important role in the water cycle.''

''It is growing cold. Winter is putting footsteps in the meadow. What whiteness boasts that sun comes into this wood! One would say milk-colored maidens are dancing on the petals of orchids. how coldly burns our sun! One would say its rays of light are shards of snow, one imagines the sun lives upon a snow crested peak on this day. one would sayt she is a woman who wears a gown of winter frost that blinds the eyes. Helplessness has weakened me. wandering has wearied my legs.'' 

Roman Payne

''Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together. '' ~Vista M. Kelly

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event.  You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?  ~J.B. Priestley

''Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth.""  Soren kKierkegaard

 ''When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown  old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.''  Samuel Upton

''The snow is sparkling like a million little suns.'' ~Lama Willa Miller

''Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes the ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.''  Albert Schweitzer

''When snow falls, nature listens. '' ~Antoinette van Kleeff







'' Lo, sifted through the winds that blow,
Down comes the soft and silent snow,
White petals from the flowers that grow
In the cold atmosphere.'' ~George W. Bungay