Chaco Canyon
This essay was first published a few winters ago in the Gallup Independent in very similar form.
On the magnificent golden butte that overlooks the ruins of Chaco Canyon, ancient astronomers, ancestors of the Pueblo peoples, created a massive solar calendar. They were not only astronomers, they had among them highly talented engineers that were able to place three enormous slices of sandstone in perfect alignment so that, as Earth revolves around the sun, sunlight strikes a spiral carved on the foremost rock in targeted locations. It happens on the fall and spring equinoxes and on the summer and winter solstices.
Long before I knew about this calendar, I imagined us little humans on our little clod of Earth moving inward and outward on a spiral as we moved away from the light of the sun on the summer solstice and toward the sun on the winter solstice. I didn't envision the spiral and the light in the configuration created by the Chaco astronomers; for some odd reason, I imagined our winter movement toward the light as if we found ourselves at the very center of a great inner ear, the spiral called the cochlea, moving outward from the darkness into the glorious light. And at the time of longest light—summer solstice—strange as it seemed, we moved along the spiral toward the darkness once again.
Important things happen in the dark. We sleep, and our bodies and minds are restored by an unseen magic. In sleep we dream and process daytime problems that have gone unsettled, sometimes for years. In the darkness plants germinate before they reach into the light. Bears hibernate, owls hunt, storytellers entertain us and move us in new directions. The lights we humans create—candles, lanterns, lamps—glow, visible in the dark.
Important things also happen in the light. We move our bodies. We do work. We create. Plants synthesize the sun's energy. Daytime animals move about. We rejoice in the light. We long for the light during the darkness of winter, for it is not only the nights that are dark but also, often, the days. Thus, people the world over celebrate the knowledge that, on whichever hemisphere we find ourselves in the season we call winter, our half of the Earth is once again returning to the light.
Just now, it is the northern hemisphere that tilts and returns to the light, beginning on the winter solstice, which will be on December 21 this year. On that day, I will again find myself in the tiny town of Elk Horn, Iowa, where my daughter works at the Museum of Danish America. Some years, the museum celebrates our return to the light with a huge evening bonfire. In the Jewish tradition, there is a festival of lights, Hanukkah, which has just passed. During Kwanzaa, a celebration of African American culture held in the dark of winter, people light a candle every night for seven nights, and each night they teach a different life principle. The Christian Church chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus at this time of year rather than in the spring, when scholars say he was actually born, in order to celebrate a great light come into the world. We humans seem to naturally want to cheer ourselves through the remaining darkness of winter, reminding ourselves that brighter days are coming.
Speaking to his followers, Jesus once said that we—you and I—are meant to be the light of the world. I often buy tea from a company that prints a message on the tags. My favorite one reads, "Live light. Travel light. Spread the light. Be the light." From a tea tag—a teaching about ways that you and I can become "the light of the world."
What would it mean to live light and travel light? To not have so much stuff, not be burdened by material things. To not use more of the Earth's resources than we need. To think before driving off somewhere, asking if we really must use up that gas and add to our carbon footprint. To be generous, maybe even until it pinches a bit. To be grateful for all things.
What does it mean to spread the light, to be the light? To let our first response be yes rather than no. To share good news. To listen—the greatest gift of all. To love, because love is what makes people blossom. To offer an experience if it might help and if it's wanted.
As the Earth turns toward the sun, let us, "Live light. Travel light. Spread the light. Be the light."