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Dec 31

Saying Goodbye to 2011


This New Year we’ve introduced a ritual that I hope will become a family tradition.  It was inspired by Pixie Cambell and her mother of all releasing ceremony. It was meant to be done for Solstice, but we didn’t learn of it until a day later.  This year we created little fabric bundles, in which we put little pieces of paper containing the things that we didn’t want to take with us into the new year.  Then we burnt them in the fire.

Such a simple little act and the whole family joined in happily and easily.  I thought it may be difficult for some of them to to think of things to write, but it seemed to come to everyone with relative ease.  Just goes to show really, we all have something within us that we’d rather not carry around.  No matter how big or small that something is, I don’t think its healthy to burden ourselves with it, especially if it stops us from moving forward.

It was lovely to do this together for the first time, all cosied up in the living room with the log burner…..but next year, it would be nice to do this out doors with other family and friends.  If only the weather were a bit more reliable.

Now that the unburdening has happened….. Its time for celebration and PARTAY! :-)

Hope you have a wonderfully healthy and happy New Year!

Dec 30

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by  SouleMama.  If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

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Dec 26

Our Winter Celebrations.

Celebrating Solstice is not something I used to to. Its something that I have recently found comforting when I realised I needed more. I am not in anyway religious, I consider myself a staunch Atheist, but I’ve been feeling like I was looking for something, needing something to feed my soul. I don’t mean soul to be anything spiritual or religious. I just mean that space that needs satisfying, the space that we feed and it makes us feel connected…. to the rest of the world/other people/nature etc.

There is one thing that we do all have in common, one thing that governs all our lives, human, animal, plants etc. We are all governed by our place in this universe, by the sun and our orbit, by the positions of the other planets. This fine balance, that if any of it were different, we would not exist like we do…….and maybe not at all. All religion aside, we have this in common.

These things, we are not taught through school. We’re often not even taught these things by our own communities. These things are learned through a desire to learn more about who we are and our place in the universe.

This year our winter celebrations have allowed me to understand our need for tradition and ritual, and consequently I have enjoyed this Christmas more above all others. Other years I have just been going through the motions, just doing what needed to be done, doing what is expected. This year I feel I’ve understood why. I’ve never been completely satisfied with celebrating Christmas in the past, always done it, but always out of obligation. This years 12 days of Christmas are a real celebration of the difference between the solar and lunar calendars……and I’m enjoying every day of it.

Make any sense?

Dec 23

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{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by  SouleMama.  If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

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Dec 22

1 Comment

Happy Mid Winter :-)

The shortest day, this year, is more important to me than ever. We’ve been homeschooling for a year now, and I, as well as the children have learned so many things that we otherwise wouldn’t have. To me, today is a reminder of the slowing down, and settling in to a rhythm of conscious learning and living. Sounds silly really, but its taken me such a long time to get to this place of being present in this moment. I find it all to easy to have my mind else where, on other things, and not on the now. The more time I take to suck in ‘this moment’, the more I enjoy it and the less I find my mind wandering. Not sure if that makes any sense, but there we go, its just how I feel. In a couple of days we’ll see a minutes more sunshine through out the day until before we know it our days will be long and warm again. I look forward to the spring and all that it will bring…but for the time being I’m just enjoying the cosy nights, the roaring fire, wooly jumpers family board games…..and the mulled wine.

This mornings sunrise was obscured by the grey clouds, but never the less the garden was calm and quiet, and it was nice to take the time to sit out with my coffee and enjoy the peace.

It’s also my younger sisters birthday today. My attempt at making her a Yule birthday cake tested my patience…. thankfully I woke with a sense of humor this morning, otherwise I could well have cried at the cake that is actually a crumbly mess but cleverly hidden under the chocolate frosting :-)

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