Today marks the winter solstice, in which we celebrate the darkest day of the year. What we’re really celebrating is that light is slowly returning to our world in the form of incrementally longer days. There’s an element of triumph associated with the solstice, in that we made it through the darkest days of the year. What’s often missed is that these cold, dark days are an important component in sustaining our health, and the health of all living things. Right now in Minnesota, the landscape looks dead. The trees are devoid of leaves and the fields are crispy and brown with dried leaves and litter from the grasses and wildflowers of last summer. However, the trees and grasses aren’t dead, but are in a kind of suspended animation. Yes, their leaves are gone, but there’s still life in the roots and core of each plant. This dormant period is a …