For years I always thought the 12 days of Christmas started on 21st December and ended on 1st January. It seemed quite a natural time period for it to happen, 20/21st being the Solstice and the official start of Winter and 31st/1st January being the end of the year and the start of the new.
Then as I grew up I realised that it was the Pagan 12 days of Christmas, and the Christian version started on 25th December (Christ's birth) and ends January 5th (Epiphany; when the three kings/wise men visited Jesus with gifts).
Somewhere along the way I decided I like the idea of both and so my period of reflection and plans for the future start on 21st and go right through January 5th.
Today I kicked off proceedings by unexpectedly waking up at 4:30am, wide awake for no particular reason but knowing I was not going to be able to sleep again. I didn't purposefully do it to see the dawn but maybe it was in the back of my mind. To be honest I've been very busy at work and stressed about it, so this isn't the first morning I've woken horribly early and got up, but this is the first one where I've got up and not started work. I just sat downstairs at the dinner table with a few cups of tea, reflecting on my job, health, inner and outer life, spirituality and purpose. I then I watched the dawn come up through the mist and rain.
“Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.” — Earl Nightingale
I think this year is going to be a very different one for me because my attitude and expectations are changing by the week.
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