Whether the tunnel you are passing through is a short culvert or a seemingly endless passage through a mountain, an unpleasant task or a devastating crisis, the way through is always by knowing that there is always another side, that the claustrophobic tunnel cannot last forever.
What light do you see at the end of a difficult tunnel in your life?
New Year’s Eve is traditionally a time of setting New Year’s resolutions, promises of how we will be better in the coming year than we were in the last. New Year’s Day is traditionally a time of breaking those resolutions. Perhaps instead of resolutions it would be better to articulate dreams or fantasies of what our lives can be, and the seeds that we already see present in our lives which could make those dreams come true.
What seed of something good do you hope will grow in your life in the year to come?
“The Holly and the Ivy” is a traditional English Christmas carol, but the symbolism of those two plants goes back even further, as they are Pagan fertility symbols. In the midst of the winter we celebrate with evergreens, finding promise of continuing life in those plants that remain green when so many others are dormant.
What in your life feels dormant, gone into hiding? What feels like it will always be green?
In Sweden Santa Lucia, or Saint Lucy’s Day is welcomed in by a girl with a crown of evergreens and candles on her head. January 13 was the solstice in the old, Julian candle, so the day honoring Saint Lucy was a way of ushering in the growing light. But in Sweden you will have to wait quite a long time past December before you will see much of any light at all.
How do you find patience to wait for the light when it is nowhere to be seen?
Many families that celebrate Christmas welcome in the season with an Advent calendar that has a little window that opens on a special picture for each night of the Advent season, or which harbors a small treat to be discovered each day.
How might it change your experience of this season if you looked at each day with the expectation that it was holding some little hidden treat for you?
