It can be easy to see Winter as a long, cold, wet slog until Spring and Summer. It is easy to love the more comfortable seasons but, for me, these Winter days offer a chance to get back in touch with the ebb and flow of things. Even a tree has its sparse times, bare months where it looks a little like death. But what seems like death is in fact a time of rest. It is a time when we should, if we are able to, rest, create space to reflect on the changes and challenges we have experienced in the months gone by and consider how we might like to grow and be as we move in to the forthcoming new year… I will read more this month than I do normally and I will rest (as much as that is possible with two school age children!). I will reflect and be gentle with myself. I will try to see how far I have come and celebrate my successes as well as consider how I might do things differently when those same challenges arise again (because they always do). I hope you get to do these things too.

I recommend a visit to Tate Britain to see Monster Chetwynd’s slugs…  a beautiful metaphor for winter re-birth and renewal.