🌊 SURF 'N TURF 🏝️
-THE BORACAY ISLAND LIFE-
The Daily Stoic.
Read aloud daily for you.
21 December 2025.
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$88,571
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🌑❄️ Winter Solstice
— The Sacred Still Point ❄️🌑
📜 December 21 🕯
The Winter Solstice marks the longest night and the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the moment when the Sun reaches its lowest apparent point in the sky before beginning its slow return toward the light.
This is not a beginning fueled by action — it is a beginning born from stillness.
Across time, cultures understood this moment not as darkness to fear, but as darkness that gestates life.
🌍 Ancient Meaning & History
Long before modern calendars, civilizations tracked this exact moment with astonishing precision.
🕯 Ancient peoples gathered at sacred sites like Stonehenge, where the monument aligns powerfully with the Winter Solstice sunset (and the Summer Solstice sunrise) — proof that this turning point of the year was intentionally honored.
🕯 The Romans celebrated Saturnalia, a time of rest, loosening rigid social roles, gift-giving, and honoring the natural cycle of death and rebirth.
🕯 In Nordic and Germanic traditions, Yule honored the rebirth of the Sun, the turning of the Wheel, and deep ancestral connection.
🕯 In Egypt, solar temples such as Karnak Temple were aligned with the Sun during this season, symbolizing resurrection, cosmic order, and the return of divine light from the underworld.
🕯 Across cultures, the message was the same:
Light is reborn through darkness — not despite it.
🔥 Why the Winter Solstice Matters Spiritually
The Solstice is a threshold.
A pause.
A breath between cycles.
Energetically, it represents:
→ The death of the old solar year
→ The womb space of transformation
→ The return of light after surrender
This is why the Solstice has always been associated with:
✨ The Underworld
✨ Ancestral wisdom
✨ Soul remembrance
✨ Inner initiation
This is not a time to push forward.
It is a time to listen.
🌑 Why It’s Especially Important Right Now
In 2025, the Solstice meets a collective that is:
🕯 Burned out
🕯 Overstimulated
🕯 Disconnected from natural rhythm
The Solstice reminds us that rest is not failure.
Stillness is not stagnation.
Darkness is not regression.
It teaches us:
🪷 You do not grow by force
🪷 You grow by allowing what is no longer aligned to fall away
🕯️ How People Celebrate the Winter Solstice (Then & Now)
Traditionally — and today — Solstice celebrations include:
💫 Lighting candles or fires to symbolize returning light
💫 Honoring ancestors and lineage
💫 Quiet gatherings rather than loud celebrations
💫 Reflection, storytelling, and ritual
💫 Clearing the home and releasing the past year
💫 Sleeping more, slowing down, conserving energy
Modern celebration does not require elaborate ritual.
It requires presence.
✨ How to Work With the Winter Solstice in 2025
This is a powerful time to:
✨ Release
→ What drained you this year
→ Old identities that no longer fit
→ Patterns that survived but no longer serve
✨ Receive
→ Insight
→ Messages through dreams
→ Subtle intuitive guidance
✨ Plant Seeds
Not action plans — intentions.
The kind that live quietly until the light strengthens.
Simple Solstice Practices:
🕯 Sit in candlelight and ask: What is ready to end?
📜 Write what you are carrying that you no longer need
🙏 Thank the darkness for what it revealed
😴 Go to bed early and let your body reset
🪷 Spend time in silence
🌘 A Solstice Reminder
The light does not return all at once.
It comes back slowly. Quietly. Faithfully.
And so do you 💚
✨ Things Most People Don’t Know About the Winter Solstice
1. The Solstice Isn’t a Day — It’s a Moment
Astronomically, the Winter Solstice is an exact moment in time, even though we often refer to it as a day or season.
It occurs when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted farthest away from the Sun.
This means:
• The shift back toward light begins immediately after the moment passes
• Even if the days still feel dark, the turning has already started
• Light returns before we consciously notice it
This mirrors life perfectly: change often begins before it’s visible.
2. The Sun Appears to “Stand Still”
The word solstice comes from the Latin solstitium, meaning “the Sun stands still.”
For several days around the Solstice:
• The Sun rises and sets in nearly the same place
• Day length barely changes
• Time feels suspended
This is why ancient cultures treated it as a sacred pause.
Nature itself slows down — and so can we.
3. The Solstice Shaped Our Modern Holidays
Many traditions people celebrate today trace back to the Winter Solstice:
🕯 Candles and lights = calling back the Sun
🌲 Evergreen trees = life that survives the dark
🎁 Gift-giving = generosity during scarcity
🔥 Fires and warmth = communal survival
Long before December holidays had names, humans were already honoring this turning point.
4. Your Body Feels the Solstice — Even If You Don’t Know Why
You don’t need to be spiritual to feel the Solstice.
Biologically:
• Longer darkness allows melatonin to be secreted for longer periods
• Energy naturally dips
• The nervous system craves rest
• Reflection and memory deepen
If you feel more tired, introspective, emotional, or inward right now — you’re not “off.”
You’re aligned.
5. This Is Why January Feels Heavy (And It’s Normal)
Historically, most cultures did not treat January as a sudden fresh start.
The Solstice was the true energetic reset.
After the Solstice:
• Light returns slowly
• Momentum builds gradually
• Seeds are planted before action
The pressure to instantly “be new” in January goes against nature.
The Solstice teaches us to prepare quietly first.
6. You Don’t Have to Celebrate to Participate
The Winter Solstice works whether you acknowledge it or not.
You’re participating when you:
• Go to bed earlier
• Sit in silence
• Feel reflective
• Let something end
• Choose rest over forcing
Awareness simply allows you to work with it instead of against it.
🌑 A Gentle Solstice Reframe for Everyone
🕯 The Winter Solstice isn’t about darkness winning.
🕯 It’s about trusting that light returns — even when you’re tired, uncertain, or still healing.
🕯 You don’t have to know what’s next. You only have to let the old cycle close.
#wintersolstice #wintersolstice2025 #soulalignment #journeywithin #EnergyAlchemy #soulawakening #winter #soulblueprint #spiritualjourney
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“There's no light at the end of the tunnel, there isn't even a tunnel. The best thing I can do is get drunk and listen to classical music. Or sleep and wait for death to get closer. Leaving this will not be a horrible thing. Yet I'm glad, somehow, that I threw my words in the air: confetti, celebrating nothing.”
—Charles Bukowski
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Different Countries, Similar Dishes 🥘
Filipino Adobo, Malaysian Ayam Masak Kicap, Vietnamese Thịt Kho, and Thai Pa-lo are interconnected Southeast Asian comfort dishes shaped by centuries of trade and cultural exchange.
Adobo traces its roots to pre-colonial Filipino vinegar preservation methods, later reinforced by Spanish-era naming and soy sauce introduced through Chinese trade.
Ayam Masak Kicap reflects the influence of Chinese migrants in the Malay world, where soy sauce was adapted into local Malay cooking with a sweeter, more aromatic balance.
Thịt Kho evolved from southern Vietnamese home cooking, strongly influenced by Chinese braising techniques combined with indigenous fish sauce and caramelisation.
Pa-lo is directly descended from Chinese (Teochew/Hokkien) braised dishes brought to Thailand, incorporating five-spice and soy sauce into Thai cuisine.
Despite their different origins, all four dishes share a common heritage of slow braising, preservation, and flavour depth shaped by regional history and cross-cultural interaction.
credit to : Kai Callaghan
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This week in 1980, the AC/DC LP “Back in Black” peaked on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #4 (December 20)
Brian Johnson’s first record with the band after the passing away of Bon Scott was massive.
According to Angus Young, the album's all-black cover was a "sign of mourning" for Scott.
Atlantic Records disagreed with the cover, but accepted if the band put a grey outline around the AC/DC logo.
The issue of whether Bon Scott's lyrics were used, uncredited, on the album has continued to bubble away, and was a major focus of Jesse Fink's biography of Scott, Bon: The Last Highway.
In the book, Scott's girlfriend Margaret "Silver" Smith (died 2006) told Fink that Scott called her on the evening before his death to invite her out to celebrate writing lyrics for “Back in Black”.
In a 1991 interview with Kerrang! magazine, Angus was asked by journalist Paul Elliott, "Who wrote the lyrics on [‘Given The Dog A Bone’] and the others on Back in Black? Bon, or Brian, or both?", and he replied, "Bon wrote a little of the stuff.”
He also said in Rolling Stone in 1998:
“We had songs that he had written and we wanted to finish the songs."
However, in other interviews in 1981, 1996, 1998 and 2000, Young denied that any lyrics on the album were written by Bon Scott, and in 2005, he said, "There was nothing [on Back in Black] from Bon's notebook."
In his 2022 autobiography The Lives of Brian, Brian Johnson says:
“The conspiracy theories are legion – usually started by people who think they know but weren't there... it was me at the end of the pen, writing every night and every morning, with only the title to work with. That's what happened. That's the truth and I really hope that settles it."
Well, I’m not too sure…..what do you think?
Over time “Back in Black” has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide, and is the second best-selling album in music history.
It’s success was immediate, debuting at #1 on the UK Albums Chart and reaching #4 on the US Billboard 200, which Rolling Stone called "an exceptional showing for a heavy-metal album".
Hmmm…..heavy metal?….don’t think so!
It topped the UK chart for two weeks and remained in the Top 10 of the Billboard chart in the US for more than five months.
In Australia, it reached #2 on the ARIA Charts.
The first single from the album, “You Shook Me All Night Long" became AC/DC's first Top 40 hit in the US, peaking at #35 on the Billboard Hot 100.
After “Back in Black” was released, AC/DC's previous LPs “Highway to Hell”, “If You Want Blood You've Got It”, and “Let There Be Rock” all re-entered the British charts, which made them the first band since The Beatles to have four albums in the UK Albums Chart simultaneously.
In 2020, “Back in Black” was ranked #84 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and in 2006 “Back in Black” was included by “Time” magazine in its list of the “100 Greatest Albums of All Time”.
In December 2021, the album was listed at #1 in Rolling Stone Australia's "200 Greatest Albums of All Time" countdown.
#backinblack, #acdc, #angusyoung, #youshookmeallnightlong, #hardrock, #80smusic, #80srock, #BrianJohnson, #thisdayinrock, #rockhistory, #rockmusic, #malcolmyoung, #dailyrockhistory, #thisdayinmusic, #onthisday, #classicalbum
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Happy Winter Solstice 🌞
Stone circles are scattered all across England, and while their exact purpose is unknown, they likely held ritual significance.
Some may be linked to burials, while others may have tracked seasonal changes, marking events such as the midsummer sunrise or midwinter sunset.
Stonehenge in particular has captured people’s imaginations for centuries as one of the world’s most famous prehistoric monuments.
Along with the other Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in the surrounding landscape, the site offers an incredible glimpse into the lives and beliefs of prehistoric people.
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GM 
💜 
Henri Bergson.
"For a conscious being, to exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly."
"Henri-Louis Bergson (18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the tradition of continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the Second World War.
Bergson is known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality.
He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented".
In 1930 France awarded him its highest honour, the Grand-Croix de la Legion d'honneur.
Bergson's great popularity created a controversy in France where his views were seen as opposing the secular and scientific attitude adopted by the Republic's officials..."
Creative Evolution (1907)
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