January Archives - Gillian Monks

Tag: January

The Joy of January

On January 16, 2024

I love January! Yes, Midwinter/Christmas is past, but this month has SO much to offer.

It is the very fact that the winter holidays are over that makes this month so special. Clear rooms, empty of all the seasonal colour and clutter. A clear garden/natural world as vegetation has died away and animals are sheltering, sleeping. A clear diary with no long lists of social commitments. In fact, a gloriously blank canvas on which to indulge in spontaneous activity! What could be better? many of us spent most of November and December bemoaning the fact that we hadn’t enough time… well, now we have!

I like to spend this blessedly still time after Christmas resting, contemplating the year to come and planning my goals and wishes with which I want to fill it.

I love the weather: drab, washed out, dark and wet enough to justify curling up indoors, providing breathing space, or brilliantly clear, sunny and cold with the beauty which frost and snow can mantle the land.

We have removed most of our Midwinter decorations but candles are still favoured and white lights now illuminate jugs of greenery and dark windows.

These days are spent in early spring cleaning, sorting, clearing, bringing into order before the longer, lighter days call us away. Evenings are time for shared discussion, listening to or watching programmes or podcasts, music and games, or quiet reading and the little projects our hands were too busy for in the past few months.

This is also a time for looking forward; for dreaming and decoding how to bring those dreams into being

Think about it. Don’t waste these precious ’empty’ days merely wishing them gone; use them, fill them, enjoy them.

A very happy January to you all!

Waste Not, Want Not!

By Gillian Monks

On January 22, 2023

In Musings of the Hearth

Our Christmas tree repurposed and redecorated as a ‘January Tree’ full of frost and ice!

I have just seen something which has greatly distressed me. A neighbour’s Christmas Tree, complete with lights, decorations and stand, put out at the side of the road for the refuse collectors to take away. My husband tells me that when he took some stuff to our refuse/recycling centre last week, there were several Christmas Trees there ready to go into a landfill site, in similar condition.

What is wrong with people? Are they really too lazy to dismantle their decorations? Do they really find it so onerous to put their decorations away in boxes and store them in an loft, cellar or garage for the next nine or ten months?

What a colossal waste! The planet is being poisoned by toxic landfill accumulated from billions of items which humanity uses once and then simply discards. As a species, we cannot keep on simply taking from and dumping on the planet in such thoughtless and selfish ways. There is also only a certain amount of raw material with which to manufacture all our consumer-driven needs. One day it will run out. What shall we all do then?

The fact that many decorations are relatively cheap to buy is besides the point. So many people cannot afford to even feed or keep themselves warm. Even a few pounds saved is better than none. And if folk really don’t want to keep something, why throw it away? Why not donate it to charity so that someone less lucky can appreciate it and be heartened by it again next year?

One of my dear friends has chosen to remove all her decorations from her Tree and put it out in her back garden, redecorated with fat balls and feeders for the wild bird population.

We haven’t even finished with our seasonal tree yet. It is still with us in its water oasis , standing in our drawing room. Cut fresh from the local forest, it hasn’t even begun to drop its needles yet, either. As always, we have removed all the coloured decorations and lights from it and redressed it in warm white lights and silver and white decorations, transforming it into a ‘Winter Tree’ which reflects the frost and snow of January. Similarly, our large jugs of evergreenery have had their colourful sparkles replaced with simple white lights. They all look truly chilly but they also cheer us at the same time. January is its own month, quite distinct from December, Midwinter and Christmas. It is lovely to be able to celebrate it and to have some appropriate decorations to brighten the dark days.

We might not even have finished with it at the end of this month – depending on how snowy the weather is in the first half of February, we might swap the silver icicles and glittery frosty baubles for the pink and red heart-shaped baubles we sometimes use to decorate for St. Valentine’s day on the 14th February!

Of course, I hasten to add that I have a rather full and untidy loft… but we have lots of fun, and we don’t need to keep buying new every year, just one or two items each season to refresh what we already have.

Life is for living and enjoying. How might you brighten these dark days and enjoy them? What might you have tucked away that can be repurposed and used for something fresh? Be inventive, use your initiative – give your spontaneity free rein.

Have fun!

And if you don’t want something any more, don’t waste it, pass it on!

The Pros and Cons of January

By Gillian Monks

On January 18, 2023

In Musings of the Hearth

Early January sunset – view from my sickbed.

After my flurry of posts through November and December, some of you might be wondering about my sudden silence this month. The simple answer is that just after the start of the new year, I succumbed to a ‘flu-type lurgy and spent ten days languishing in bed, unable to do much at all except cough, suck throat lozenges and down lots of hot and cold drinks. Worst of all, I could neither read or write for most of that time – which for me really is a total disaster!

Yet my illness can be looked at another way; as an opportunity for a complete rest and a space in which to assess how well my winter celebrations are going, where I am up to and where I might like to go next… and how I might achieve it. Everything has a positive aspect to it.

Coughs and sniffles – with the added spectre of Covid – are all a part of winter life which appears to reach a peak of intensity in the grey cold days of January. The excitement of Midwinter/Christmas has passed, the weather is awful and we feel that there is nothing to look forward to except an unrelieved daily grind to pay off the seasonal bills and get through the next dull weeks and months. No wonder so many of us get depressed.

Yet, the month of January has a lot to offer in its own unique way, not least because it is a relatively empty, dull time which gives us the space to be bored.

There are two main ways in which you can help yourself to feel better. One is to cosset yourself and cosy up with snuggly blankets, gallons of hot chocolate and heart-warming distractions in the form of books or on-screen stories. Alternatively, in an echo of jolly Christmas gatherings, arranging an activity with members of your family or friends – even just one other person – can also help to distract you and lift your spirits. Things like a simple meal – even just a bowl of hearty soup and some good bread with a lit candle can become special and comforting, especially if shared with the right person or people – or shared with a relative stranger in whom you might suddenly discover a new and dear friend. Or you might decide to play a board or card game – look up an on-line quiz, meet for coffee at your local garden centre, go for a walk – anything, in fact, which brings you together.

Tip: don’t opt to watch something on a screen. You are looking for shared activity which brings you together and engenders conversation, company, connection and, if possible, laughter.

Enjoy and value these relatively ’empty’ days when you can afford to be spontaneous. We have just spent a couple of months cramming all manner of preparations, parties and activities into our already overburdened schedules – now we have time. Acknowledge it. Use it. Enjoy it!

My Free Gift To You All

By Gillian Monks

On January 16, 2021

In News

I am offering the January module in the on-line digital cycle of Walking With The Goddess for free. It is my wholehearted gift to all those who might wish to complete or newly begin this exciting adventure. As the years turn and the 2020 cycle reaches its conclusion and the 2021 cycle just begins, this month appropriately features the goddess, Arianrhod, weaver of cosmic time and fate, who will help us to birth a new and better future. It also includes Dwynwen, patroness of lovers, who’s special day is celebrated at the end of January and who will help us to further develop our own capacity for unconditional love.

To register to receive this completely free information – which also includes an audio guided journey, one-to-one support and private Facebook discussion page – simply click on this link: https://www.earthwalking.co.uk/checkout?edd_action=add_to_cart&download_id=825

You will also find lots more information about the other eleven months/modules , which Welsh higher deities are featured, what topics are covered and how they can support and help us by clicking on: https://www.earthwalking.co.uk/walking-with-the-goddess/

I realised nearly a year ago that it was amazing synchronicity that I should decide to forge this new path in conjunction with the Celtic Welsh gods and goddesses of old just as the pandemic was first making its presence felt. Each month I have intuited and channelled what I have been told. Sometimes, as in the case of this month of January, this has delayed the writing and distribution of the module as I waited until the time felt just right and the information was ready to flow.

I wish all of you a year in which you will find connection and love. Only then shall we all be able to come together to heal and build a new and better world.

With my love.

Happy Distaff Day!

By Gillian Monks

On January 4, 2020

In Musings of the Hearth

I must be one of very few people who was actually delighted to return to work on Thursday… in fact, I could hardly wait! When I refer to ‘work’, I am actually talking about my writing and I have been desperate to begin work proper on my next full length book for months, but had to see ‘The Alternative Advent Calendar’ birthed out into the world first.

‘Spring In Your Step’ follows directly on from ‘Merry Midwinter’ so begins at this most grey and uninspiring time of year – January. Memories of my singular childhood are tumbling onto my keyboard along with lots of ideas and observations as to how we can all really enjoy these otherwise quiet, dull days and the true relevance of this first month of the year. As in my first book, there are also ‘Comments from Joan’ and one or two recipes per chapter taken from her manuscript cookery book… hearty sustaining casseroles, comforting hot, sticky puddings and delicious treats to sustain you through the winter weather, whether you are playing in the snow or struggling to work. And there will be more ideas for little seasonal craft projects along the way. If you would like to know more, I will be putting an extract on my blog in the next few days, so watch this space!

Some people are only returning to work on Monday, 6th January (which, ironically, is actually when ‘Old Christmas Day’ would have fallen before the change in the calendar in the 1750’s) but many have already returned in the days since we celebrated New Year. Why bemoan the fact? If you do not actually enjoy what you do for a living, at least be thankful that you have got a job to go to. (Although I have to admit that in these days of zero hours contracts and gross abuse of workers I can well understand why this might not be the case but this is a different conversation for another day.)

Distaff Day is variously placed on different days around the beginning of January and in times gone by was used to celebrate the return of the women to working life after the Christmas revels (as if they had been sitting twiddling their thumbs while all the feasting and celebrating had been going on – who was supposed to cook, bake and provide it all?) Some people refer to it as Saint Distaff’s Day but in fact there is no such saint – it simply refers to spinning (work traditionally performed by women using a distaff, hence the reference in family ancestry to the ‘distaff line when referring to the mother’s or female side of the family). On the other hand, in the agricultural communities the men returned to work on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Epiphany, when their work tools would be blessed, the farm horses dressed up and all manner of joking and hi-jinks entered into.

So celebrate your return to work… or the fact that you have had a good Christmas… or that Christmas is over and you can be left in peace… or that we might get snow in the next few weeks… or that we haven’t had snow to further complicate our lives… but celebrate something. Midwinter and Christmas isn’t the only opportunity to celebrate – if you look hard enough you can always finds lots of wonderful things to be thankful and happy about… celebrate LIFE!