Letters from Grenada

The two revolutions, I mean the annual revolutions of the declination and of the centre of the Earth, are not completely equal; that is the return of the declination to its original value is slightly ahead of the period of the centre. Hence it necessarily follows that the equinoxes and solstices seem to anticipate their timing, not because the sphere of the fixed stars moves to the east, but rather the equatorial circle moves to the west, being at an angle to the plane of the ecliptic in proportion to the declination of the axis of the terrestrial globe.

-Nicolaus Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543)

You know tomorrow is the equinox, right? Shorter days, less sunlight, frost in the morning, letting your car engine warm up, Halloween, icy roads, wild turkeys in the forest behind my house… Thanksgiving, visible breath, ZOMG I HATE THE MALL, and will I get my first tree in five years? Probably. So the Bean can have that memory. And because it might feel nice to do something traditional for once. Hot chocolate. Grandma’s sugar cookies and gingerbread men with ribbons tied around their necks, green and red plaid and shot through with gold. Quick work with a needle and thread and they are no longer cookies but rather ornaments, like the clothespins I painted and turned into reindeer. I’ll revel in wearing my purple down vest, that I’m finally somewhere cold in December. I’ll bury my face in the fabric and drink through it the scent of cold air, which always always reminds me of my mother and memories I must have imagined, fabricated with odds and ends of stories told about the years right before I was born. This year, perhaps, I will find out if I can still iceskate backwards. I will wake up on Christmas morning in brand new flannel pajamas. The Bean will have his first ever candy cane, and through sheer force of will I’ll stay warm and happy until the days lengthen again and my sun returns.

(via)

Posted on September 21st, 2009 under Grenada • Tags: copernicus, equinox, family, love, quotations, quotes, random, sensory memories, sunlight, tumblr, winter. •  Print This Post •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback