I find this time of year quite challenging, we can have bright, winter sunshine, but it’s the darkness taking up at least twelve hours of the day which makes me feel like a sleepy and rather depressed mole. About ten years ago I bought some twinkling, outdoor lights to be threaded on the trellis at the side of the front door; it was my admission that Christmas was here [in fact could no longer be avoided], last week they died having provided a decade of twinkle and cheerfulness. To be clear we never took them down and they became an all year round attraction..
On Monday we went and bought another set [ I can hear my mother’s voice, ‘They’ll see me out’] and I am cheerful again at the welcome sparkle when I push my bike into the front garden after an early morning gym session. We all need light against the darkness, it can be actual lights [£15 from The Range if you’re asking] or it can be music, poetry, reading or Christmas itself. Three of them come together magically in my favourite Christmas carol, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ from the wonderful poem by Christina Rossetti,
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.
I’m about to embark on a reread of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens; it will make me cry [as it always has done] but it will be a beacon of humanity over the next few weeks.
And then in 2025, in the spring, my latest collection, ‘Notes of Your Music’ will be published. I feel blessed by all the above. I hope you find your own light in this dark season and have a brilliant beginning to the new year.
