Lately is an afternoon of birthday celebration for plenty of Christians within the Western Global – Christmas Day culminates weeks of making plans, giving items, fasting – right into a festive day of celebrating mild entering the sector. The Council of Excursions in 567 AD proclaimed the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany as a sacred and festive time, contrasted with the preparation of Creation.
This can be a time noticed as a skinny veil most likely between the religious and earthly planes, and a time to divine internal knowledge and listening as we look ahead to the 12 months forward. Throughout the darkness of iciness, a bit of of sunshine is rising if handiest we care to seek out it. Energetically, we’re wrapping up the 12 months and having a look forward to what’s going to serve us and humanity absolute best. This enjoy of Christmastide is to inspect the depths of our personal soul.
Lately is set Gentle in its many paperwork. My favourite is the start of the Guide of John, “To start with used to be the Phrase, and the Phrase used to be with God, and the Phrase used to be God. 2 He used to be to start with with God. 3 All issues had been made via him, and with out him used to be now not any factor made that used to be made. 4 In him used to be existence,[a] and the existence used to be the sunshine of fellows. 5 The sunshine shines within the darkness, and the darkness has now not triumph over it.” (ESV model). I additionally revel in the gorgeous model of this passage in The Message translation.
Each and every night time right through the 12 Holy Nights I’m journaling. My questions for this night to myself are:
How am I (are we) a gentle to others?
How am I (are we) a gentle within the darkness?
How will I (can we) grasp onto mild in a tenacious method in the course of the ups and downs of the 12 months? This, to me, is the intertwining of a extra anthroposophical glance into the Holy Nights on nowadays as we take a look at this Holy Night time representing the month of January and with that the planetary influences we see in January.
How do I (can we) transform self assured, sensible in our targets for the 12 months and maintain assembly those targets in a affected person method?
In this observe of targets, I selected a phrase for 2023, “BOLD”. Then I took this phrase and considered techniques I wish to reside my existence extra boldly than prior to. This got here all the way down to spaces of private well being, circle of relatives and relationships, religion, paintings and budget, our farm. This made it more uncomplicated to look a imaginative and prescient in every space and the right way to spoil down those beliefs into smaller and now not overwhelming targets.
You may ask why there isn’t a homeschool objective indexed? That is just because homeschooling is to me an extension of the well being of our circle of relatives and the well being of {our relationships}. So homeschooling is in the ones classes.
The very last thing about nowadays is that most likely this is an afternoon of group, circle of relatives, pleasure, leisure, laughter – how will this play out within the 12 months? How are we able to come with extra of those qualities in our 12 months to come back?
Considering and considering with you,
Carrie