
The orange tree in front of our little house is bursting with fruit, ripe for the picking. The diminutive grapefruit tree in front of it has just two grapefruit, huge and weighty for its delicate limbs. The site of all this citrus fruit ripening under the cool December sun is like a ray of summer sunshine in each brightly colored orb.
The "O Antiphon" of Advent today marks the solstice with this hymn:
"O dawn of the east, brightness of light eternal, and sun of justice: come, and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death."