Coming Out of the Longest Night

In 2025, the winter solstice fell on December 21, the longest night of the year. Today, December 22, is the day after the turning point. The darkness has reached its peak and the light has begun its slow return. Not dramatically. Not all at once. Just enough to signal that something has shifted.

That timing feels exact for the year I have lived.

This year broke something open in me. I stopped living inside the American daydream, the one tethered to capitalism, materialism, and the idea that productivity is a moral virtue. I had been moving through the world believing that if I worked hard enough, sacrificed long enough, and performed well enough, stability and dignity would follow. I believed that my career was proof of my worth and that success would protect me.

Then I was laid off.