Just around the corner...

from the Botswana detective ladies, who are full of charming aphorisms, this take on the afterlife:

she was not certain of what constituted such an afterlife, where the late people went, what they did, whether they could hear us, or that was just a conceit on our part, but she thought they 'went around some corner we have yet to turn'

I'm liking that, it's vague enough to encompass any number of theories and beliefs.  As we age, some of us become more sure of our beliefs, some more skeptical, many times depending upon how much loss we have suffered, and the source of that loss.  One of my dear aunts, upon my father's death, told me she really wasn't so sure about the afterlife.  I was shocked.  My own skepticism was one thing; my religious aunt, who had sung in her church choir for over fifty years, had begun to wonder herself.  I was seeking her certainty that my Dad was out there somewhere playing cards and golfing.  She made this remark as we went into the church for the funeral Mass.  There's nothing like a requiem mass to reassure you that someone is still peddling Heaven.

So at Christmas, and Epiphany, we look for the light.  Our solstice remains changeless:  the light comes, the days lengthen, and we look to Spring.