Astronomically,
today is when the orbit of the Earth brings us in perihelion, or at the point
closest to the sun. It is a matter of a million miles or thereabouts closer
than at the furthest point, aphelion. The difference is really inconsequential
against our average distance of 93 million miles.
Still,
it’s hard not to consider the irony for us folks in the upper portion of the
Northern hemisphere, where we are in the early stages of another winter. Today in
particular I don’t feel closer to the sun, at least as far as the temperature
is concerned. The thermometer read 0 degrees at 5 this morning, and a light
breeze surely meant below zero wind chill.
But at
least we are past the solstice, slowly and inexorably tilting back toward the
sun. Soon its rising will start to creep backward in time, and we will look for
it to shift more easterly through the trees in the lower forest.
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