Lisa Thorpe

Happy Solti•Hanu•Christ

The shortest day and the longest night surround us and yet we rejoice in the radiance around us.  Such is the contraction of the season.  Whatever ancient religion you like to observe and celebrate with friends and family they all had the idea that this time of year is special.  In this season we arrive literally at our darkest hour and yet all around us is abundance.  The persimmon tree is the perfect reflection of the dichotomy of the season, a time of deep darkness and bitter cold that is filled with plenty and radiance.  The tree itself is both bare and abundant.  Like it’s sister trees it has lost all it’s leaves and stands naked along the path tucked between the Labyrinth and the old Ranch house here at the Bishop’s Ranch and while bare of leaf this nearly hundred year old beauty is in no way barren.  The ancient tree is deeply laden with gorgeous globes, fruit of a deep orange color that is dense and rich, a fruit juicy and bursting.  There she stands on these frosty frigid mornings defying common sense, full of fruit and possibility.  The persimmon tree stands as a sentinel on this darkest night.  We light our candles in celebration that we have made it once again to this turn of the earth and we will rise to greet another, slightly longer day tomorrow.  Faith, in whatever form we choose, that this moment of beauty and wonder, so pregnant with possibility, will push it’s light into the coming days and weeks and months ahead.  We are each a little light in the dark, we are each a flickering flame, huddle close my friends, share the flame within you, as the saying goes a candle loses nothing by lighting another candle let’s set the world on fire.

I’ll be taking a break until the second Friday of December.  My husband, and web guide will be updating my website with this painting and some new work for you to see I will post a little something when he does.  Until then have a wonderful holiday season, may your heart and hearth be full of warmth and light.  Lisa