Winter Thoughts

This time of year invites contemplation, candlelight and connection.

Contemplation

The festive period can often give us a little more space than we are used to in our day to day lives. Despite the somewhat frenetic preparations that Christmas seems to induce, there is the blissful period of calm between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. As a child, I remember these days feeling dull after all the excitement and build-up to Christmas but now I relish these days to take some time to contemplate, to take gentle walks and to think over the ups and downs of the year and to ponder what the year ahead might hold.

Candlelight

Even though we have passed the shortest day, in what can feel like the darkest part of the year, we light candles to invite their soft, flickering light to illuminate our lives. During our long, midwinter evenings lighting candles on our tables or in our living spaces brings a calm, tranquil sense to our surroundings. Settling into that calm and freeing ourselves of expectation can be wonderfully restorative.

Connection

This is a special time of year when we make the effort to reach out to those friends that we don’t see often. We don’t send cards (preferring to donate to charity) but we do love hearing from friends near and far in messages, cards, round-robins. It’s a helpful reminder that we are a social species and moments of connection are vital to our well-being. This newsletter is also a way of reaching out to those who share our lives in big and small ways, feeling gratitude for your connection.

After another trip around the sun, we’d like to thank all our supporters, our newsletter readers, our B&B guests, our course participants, our buyers of bars of soap, our rare breed pork and mutton customers, our organic free-range turkey clients, our followers on socials and our friends IRL (in real life).

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