December heralds in the season of Advent - often overlooked as we charge headlong towards the brighter, glitzier celebration of Christmas, champagne glass in one hand, numerous shopping bags in the other, doing our best to totter about on those ridiculously high heels (ok boys - you may be exempt from that last one ;-) ). But the Celtic pagans who were deeply in tune with natures rhythms really understood this time, and no wonder it was later adopted and adapted into the Christian practices in December. 

Advent (literally 'coming') is a time leading up to the greatest darkness, the longest night. And yet, even in the deepening darkness there is a seed of hope and preparation for the returning light. It is a time to become quiet and still- even if you can only catch one minute between social engagements and shopping trips. It is time to converse again with the patience of winter, the waiting and a kind of deep prophetic longing. What are we waiting for? Christmas? A new year? A time to wipe the slate clean and start again?

Advent, for me, is indeed a time of preparation. I prepare for the new year. What qualities do I want to cultivate as the light returns? What limiting behaviours, beliefs and thought processes do I want to shed? Without taking this time to prepare for the coming of the light, I find I stumble into the new year unprepared and liable to simply carry on as before unconsciously following the habits of old. A new year is a time to re-write the script.

I came upon some beautiful words by Caroline Oakes about advent: "advent - when, as sleepers, we awaken to our own light of love, deep within us, waiting to be reborn again in the dark stables of our own souls".

May this coming season of Advent, Yule, Solstice, Christmas and New Year rekindle that light of love within each of us.

Much love, 

Claire x