solstice

No Candlelight for Renters?

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Are you enjoying all the cozy vibes this season with string lights and candlelight?

For those who own their residence, then it’s no problem. If you rent the place where you live, it might not be so easy. Burning candles is often prohibited in lease agreements.

I love the scents and soft light of candles. They are part of my daily routine when I do yoga, meditate or just want to relax. Especially this time of year when we’re losing daylight. Tomorrow is the winter solstice. Winter starts officially and we will have more hours of darkness than any other time of year. Creating our own light sources indoors is the best way to create hygge and embrace the season.

My first encounter with burning candles being prohibited was at my last apartment. Before signing the lease, I spoke with the owner of the property and negotiated an addendum allowing me to burn candles.

The next encounter I was not so lucky. It was around this time last year that I sold my mother’s house and rented her an apartment. Again, the lease did not allow burning candles. This time I was not able to negotiate anything. It might be the difference between renting an apartment in a smaller multi-family house from an individual versus an apartment in a large complex with hundreds of units and a corporate landlord.

Further, where my mom lives there had been a recent fire caused by a candle, which resulted in a lot of damage. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), “Candle fires peak in December and January with 11 percent of candle fires in each of these months.”

Because of the dangers caused by candle burning, I can see why property owners want to prohibit the practice. According to Statista, there were more than 40 million housing units occupied by renters in this country last year. That’s a lot of people who are potentially having lifestyle restrictions.

I wonder about that fine line between a lifestyle choice and a religious and cultural practice. How often do landlords enforce this provision in a lease? When they enforce it, do they enforce it uniformly? At what point could this restriction result in religious discrimination?

Are people allowed to have birthday candles? If someone has a birthday party and they light candles and blow them out right away, that is different from someone burning several candles for a sustained period of time.

What if someone is lighting a menorah for Hanukkah? Or lighting the kinara for Kwanzaa? Not all candle burning is the same, so I wonder how do property owners decide. Maybe there is no actual enforcement, until there’s a fire and someone has to pay.

Polar Night in Svalbard

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Have you heard of Svalbard? I hadn’t until this past week.

A suggested YouTube video for me with the title, “Life in the DARKEST PLACE on earth (24/7 darkness)︱Svalbard, an island close to the North Pole” caught my eye and I watched.

I had never heard the term “Polar Night” until then either. I’ve heard of places where it’s dark 24/7 for periods of time during the winter, but this term seemed to encapsulate something different the way the vlogger, Cecilia, describes it. Polar Night in Svalbard lasts for two months!

The tourism website for Svalbard describes it in a rather fun way too.

‘Winter doesn’t just show up overnight’ is something you’d be safe enough to say most other places in the world without being wrong. But what if the night doesn’t just last a couple of hours, but instead spans over two months? The dark season in Svalbard lasts from around the end of October until the middle of February, but between November 14th and January 29th we enter the darkest and cosiest part of the dark season, also known as the Polar Night. As the days darken during late autumn the cold of winter also creeps in, and with the coming of the sun the light also shines on a new winter in our archipelago. While winter may not show up overnight, a lot can happen during the course of a Polar Night!

Cecilia loves this season and really leans into it. She’s all about the hot drinks with sweets, lighting fires and plaid flannel pajamas. Full on cozy! Which I love, and reminds me of when I started writing my Collection Of Moments series. Where I could find the good in all the seasons, not just the warm ones that I prefer.

I learned about hygge, which is a Danish term, where they also lean into the coziness of the dark winter months. Svalbard is one of a cluster of islands that are part of Norway, but very west of the country and closer to the North Pole.

One of the wildest things that she talks about is the polar bears. There are many around and they are a real threat. In one of the videos when she went for a walk, not only does she have a hat with a spotlight, she slung a rifle over her back. I’m not a gun person, but I can definitely see the need for one. This is no joke and one of the many tools for survival.

So I’m enjoying the videos and will watch more. But I don’t think that I would visit. Especially not during Polar Night. We’re in the darkest month right now here in Massachusetts. It will keep getting darker until the Winter Solstice on December 21st. Getting dark at 4pm is bad enough. Never mind complete darkness for two months!

I don’t want to wish time away, so I’m leaning into the cozy as well. The light will return soon enough. And at least we don’t have to worry about polar bears!

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Image: Screenshot

Summer Solstice Strawberry Moon

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moon rising in the sky

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I love taking pictures of the tops of trees touching the sky.  Especially at dusk as the moon rises. It might be my favorite time of day. Maybe because I was born at night.

This past week I watched the moon becoming more full and tonight it’s the full strawberry moon.

It’s also summer solstice. The longest day of the year and the first day of summer! The first time that the two have coincided since 1967, the Summer of Love. Back then it was a time filled with chaos and change.

Based on the horrific and tragic event last week at Pulse and the looming Democratic and Republican conventions, it looks like we might be in for another long hot summer. I hope that as a nation we can do better than 1967 — heal and move towards light and love.

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Winter Solstice Blooming Flowers

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winter solstice blooming flowersIt may be the first day of winter, but Mother Nature seems confused.

As I walked around yesterday, I saw this tree blooming. Apparently it thinks it’s spring!

The weather this week is supposed to be downright balmy. The forecast for Christmas Eve is the mid to upper 60s!

Since I know the warmth will not last, I’ll enjoy it and the surprise flowers.

Happy Solstice! Looking forward to more light….

The Longest Day

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summer solstice longest dayLast week was a tough one for our country. Especially for African-Americans. What happened in Charleston, South Carolina left me numb. I had to just sit to get my bearings.

I still haven’t processed it. Maybe I will never get my head around what happened. It was too violent. Too senseless. And we know that something similar will happen again. This country needs to address the past to get to the healing. We need to address so many things.

But none of us will make it through the day if we only think about the bad. So we go on and look for the good.

Today was the longest day of the year. The summer solstice. It was also Father’s Day. Those are two very good things in one day. I spent time with my family and had a nice meal.

When I was driving home, it was after 8pm and still light. I decided to chase the last of the light on this one day of the year when we have the most daylight. There’s something special about a day like this and I wanted to savor every last drop.

It started out raining in the morning, then cleared up and got warm and sunny. A perfect first day of summer. I took pictures of the sunset near an open field. The light remained.

It was also the first International Yoga Day. I didn’t get to do any yoga today, but I am almost done with my annual listing of free yoga classes in Boston. It should be up on the blog within the next day or so all new for 2015!

The last bit of light was looking at the Boston skyline from Wollaston Beach in Quincy. It was a beautiful sunset and smelled like the sea. Now I’ll do a bit of meditating and hope for a peaceful week for us all.

Namaste.