Candlemas is 10 days away. It's the first cross-quarter day, coming forty days after Christmas. During Epiphany the lectionary leads us through the ministry and miracles by which Jesus made Himself manifest to His people during His ministry in Palestine. But at the same time that we race forward thirty years from His birth as a tiny baby wrapped in swaddling close and laid in a manger, to His adult ministry and proclamation; we also proceed forty days at the mundane pace of real life to the commemoration of His presentation in the temple and His redemption as a first-born male for the price of two turtle-doves.

In the same time, we move astronomically one eighth of the way around the sun, in our annual circuit as part of this planet earth. From the winter solstice at Christmas time, we have come to the balance point between the solstice (midwinter by Celtic reckoning) and the equinox (midspring). Thus we stand at the end of winter and the beginning of spring**.

The Christian year is characterized by these three overlaid rhythms: the annual retelling of the entire story of creation and salvation in condensed time; the annual commemoration of events on the anniversary of their occurance; and the ancient natural rhythm of the God-created earth and heavens.

It has been dark for so long. Since November I get up in the dark and go to work in the dark. When I leave the office it is already dark again, and I go to sleep in the dark. But by Candlemas, I start to notice that sometimes I can be out the office door before the last rays of the setting sun are cut off by the horizon. Sometimes, I see dawn creeping over the skyline before I sit down to work. Light is coming back into my daily life. And at the same time I am reminded that in *Him* is light, and that Light is the life of men. Although a smaller feast than Christmas, this is still one of the most treasured holy days for us.

I have decided this year to cook cornish game hens for Candlemas supper. They will be reminiscent of the doves that Joseph brought to sacrifice in the Temple. We will set out all the candles in the house on the dining table, and turn out all the lights in the house, and taking unlit lanterns go meet our dinner guest at her house. She will give us light for our lanterns, and then we will walk home together, bringing the light anew into our home. Once there, we will take turns lighting the candles, and with each candle naming one of the people whom we cherish and for whom pray and thank God.

On the week-end, if we have time, we will make some candles. I have dipping-pots, and also some beeswax rlling sheets. I'll need to check and make sure I have candlewick. Of course, rehearsals have started up for the spring ballet (the company is preparing Coppelia) but I'm working on carrying on with life *despite* the demands of the ballet company. We just have to be flexible. We have a teaching intern coming to stay with us too, starting on Candlemas Eve, so we need to keep things a little low-key this year; but we should still be able to have fun.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**For those of you who use the mediterreanean reckoning that puts the start of winter at the solstice and the start of spring at the equinox, you stand at midwinter on Candlemas, but for me that reckoning, although commonly quoted in the news, feels very strange