"Although some might experience this moment despairingly and murmur lamentations throughout the seemingly  interminable solstice night, others greet it with jubilation.   Now, at this  precise moment, Earth's north pole has shied away from the Sun as much as it ever will.   The following moment, however, will initiate the pole's gradual but inexorable return toward the  summer solstice, when our hemisphere will once again  nod reverently toward its parent star.  For now, however, we begin our  annual excursion through the winter world which, though quiescent, is not dead, but merely dormant.  From the persistent evergreens to distant wolf howls life persists.  From the unbounded starfields reflected on lake ice to the scarcely audible splash  of water under that ice, energy abounds.  So, take heart and move forward:  every crunching footstep onto the crystalline snowscape will take you back toward the realm of the Sun."