New Year Archives - Gillian Monks

Tag: New Year

A Very Happy New Year!

On January 5, 2022

Belated – but no less heartfelt – New Year greetings!

For me, 2022 has got off to a fairly rollicking start. It is an old belief that whatever you do on the 1st January will set the tone and pace for the rest of that year. Well! I had carefully planned the day to be more relaxed, a lot more flexible, with lots of lovely activities (watching the New Year’s Day Concert from Vienna in the morning among them) with an early, less formal dinner for 5.pm.

All was going well and I was thoroughly enjoying my day. Yet, as our meal ended, a very dear friend and guest who had joined us for dinner suddenly lost consciousness and gracefully – with assistance from my husband and son – slithered down off her chair onto the floor. It was just as well that my son is both a medical herbalist and an Emergency Medical Technician – he was therefore able to begin treating the lady in question immediately.

There then followed many hours of phone calls, urgent conversations, oxygen cylinders and read-outs, paramedics, numerous cups of tea, coffee and soup, and finally, just after midnight, the arrival of an ambulance to transfer our dear friend (now well on the way to recovery) to hospital for more tests.

It just goes to show that you can never tell what might happen next – even when you are sitting in your own cosy, comfy, safe home environment around your own table enjoying a happy family meal!

I have deeper thoughts about this which I will share with you another time, but for now, please accept my love and best wishes for a marvellous new year. We shall be gently winding down our Winter celebrations as the month progresses. Already, the birds are singing and the indefinable quality of light has changed… spring is on its way.

Make 2022 a brilliant year of choices, new adventures, wonderful experiences and love for all that is… indeed, a very happy new year!

A Very Merry Midwinter!

By Gillian Monks

On December 21, 2021

In Musings of the Hearth

We have reached the turning point of the Winter… the shortest day… the darkest time of the year. Before us lies the Solstice… the rebirth of Light, of the Sun; the turning of the year and of a new spring season to look forward to.

I wish you all a golden, joyous Midwinter, a tremendous Yule, a very happy Christmas and a New Year of bright and beautiful days!

With my love, always.

A Happy New Year!

By Gillian Monks

On December 31, 2020

In Musings of the Hearth

Every cloud has a silver lining!

Greetings to all my dear friends and readers! As I sit here typing and talking to you the sun is streaming through the window but the mountains are covered in glistening snow!

We all know what kind of year 2020 has been, so I am not going to state the obvious again. Much more important is what kind of a year are we going to have? I don’t just mean a proposed return to the ‘normal’ we had before the pandemic struck – globally we were already on a one way ticket to disaster in that respect. No, we need to view what is happening among the human inhabitants of this planet in a wider, global context. The Earth is a living organism in her own right and we are a part of it. A couple of weeks ago I read this quotation, although I have no idea who originally wrote/said it: ‘We can’t return to normal because the normal we had was precisely the problem.’

That’s it in a nutshell. We don’t want our previous ‘normal’ back again… we want – and all deserve – something infinitely better… for ALL life on Earth and the Earth herself, as well as her human inhabitants.

And it is up to you and me to bring this about. No waiting for ‘the government’ or ‘the authorities’ to ‘do something’. It is the responsibility of each and every one of us to begin to co-create a bright new future… design and build a whole new way of thinking and living and integrating beneficially with the natural world and each other. We begin with ourselves… with how we view and react to ourselves… how we treat ourselves with consideration and honour. Then we move on to how we interact with those close around us… and ever onwards and outwards until we encompass the whole world with love, grace and gratitude.

Yes, the situation we now find ourselves in with Covid-19 is, quite frankly, terrifying and heart breaking – but it is also true that it is always darkest before the dawn. This is our BIG chance… the amazing opportunity to take this whole crazy, horrifying situation and turn it around into humanity’s greatest triumph, (as has already been so wonderfully demonstrated by so many) and to build a new world.

So, just for starters, what will your New Year resolution be? I suggest that you make just one, so that you can really work at sticking to it. I may share my own when I have finished adequately defining and refining it, but I think that it has to involve learning to automatically send out unconditional love to each and every fearful, painful or annoying situation and every hurtful or offensive person.

Then what will you go on to dream into being for our glorious new world? our perfect society? And what part do you plan to take in making it all come about? It doesn’t matter what genetic background you hail from, or what spiritual beliefs and religions you follow – these are only marvellously diverse expressions of the wonder and richness of life as a whole. We are all brothers and sisters and I love each and every one of you with a passion and intensity normally only reserved for those of blood ties.

My first joyful action of these New Year proceedings is to send out my unequivocal and deeply heart-felt love and finest best wishes to you all for the coming year. This brings to mind the first two lines of something which is known as the ‘Druid’s Vow’:

‘We swear by peace and love to stand,
Heart to heart and hand to hand…’

…And even if it is still virtually – for the present – shoulder to shoulder too. We can do this! Good luck… have a real blast… make this the most amazing year ever…

A very hopeful, satisfying, triumphant and positive New Year for 2021 to you all… as ever and always, with my love.

Greetings For Calan Gaeaf!

By Gillian Monks

On October 30, 2020

In Musings of the Hearth

The Ancestor Table is set and awaits the names, photos and memorabilia of those to be remembered and honoured… a time of soft light and deep shadows.

So, here we are… at the end of Summer and the beginning of Winter. The seeds of all our endeavours for 2020 have been sown – and harvested – and what a curious year it has been.

Now it is time to draw all the threads of our year together. To take all that we have hoped for, striven for and achieved, all we have failed at or lost, and pull them within to be reviewed, reworked and reborn in resolutions for the coming new year. In the summer months of the year the light is all around us… it pervades, intrudes, even disturbs our sleep as it demands our attention and constant activity. But here we are at the very threshold of Winter – with barely eight hours of daylight each day, less in stormy times of heavy cloud and driving rain, and growing ever shorter as we journey on to Midwinter.

The focus of our lives shifts. The undeniable light which suffused us throughout the summer has dimmed. It is time to harvest that too, and take the light within… to shield and nurture it… to sit and be present with it… to bring it to the very edge of our own inner cauldron which represents the roiling, moiling inner source of all that makes us ‘us’ and illuminate what we discover there. For this is also the time of our own inner harvest. Then we may rest, recuperate, and await our rebirth with that of the Sun at Midwinter. Take time to breath and reflect… to decide where you go from here… what you wish to see and do in the new year… and, perhaps most importantly of all, how you wish to achieve it.

Be bold! Be daring! This time of pandemic is not one for holding back and being timid – it is a time of make or break, a time to play your hand and aim for the very highest goals.

As Darkness envelops us (in many more ways than one) and the northern half of the Earth judders and sighs as she settles for her rest, all that has passed and gone before – along with all possibility of what may be to come – draws near us at this liminal time, the transition from this to… what? It is for us to choose. And at this time of decision, all the Ancestors, our ancestors, of blood, of place, of belief, draw close once more. Do they come to support us? To chastise us for our follies? To seek forgiveness and love? Welcome them. We need solidarity at this particular time. They have faced it all before. They can help to guide us through. Simply open your hearts and minds to them with love. You do not have to know who they are, just acknowledge that they have been… must have existed, or else you could not possibly be here now. Buried deep within your DNA are genetic memories of all that they have experienced, and they will help you remember now, so that you may learn by their own personal collective triumphs and failures what to repeat and where not to go.

I do not wish you a mere ‘good weekend of festivity’, or a jolly, enjoyable or exciting ‘Hallowe’en’ with silly masks and make-up and fancy dress and all the theatricals which humanity employs when it is really seeking to dodge important issues.

I wish you a mind-bogglingly transformative weekend, an experience of such depth and colour that it will take your breath away. But to begin, simply sit with yourself, light a candle, and be silent, with love in your heart.

May the true blessings of Calan Gaeaf / Samhain / Hallowe’en be yours!

Happy Hallowe’en!

By Gillian Monks

On October 31, 2019

In Musings of the Hearth

To all my friends, everywhere, I wish you a deeply peaceful, nourishing and joyous Hallowe’en/Calan Gaeaf. The autumn is rapidly drawing to a close and winter is impatiently waiting in the wings. It is time to withdraw into our homes… into our selves… and take some time out to rest, re-evaluate and regenerate our energies, just as the natural world is now doing.

As the seasons slip from autumn into winter and we enter this still dark time of ‘in between’, remember that this is also the time when the veils thin between the worlds… beings from other levels of time and place can now come among us which means that this is also the time when our loved ones and more distant ancestors can once more draw close to us. This is a good time to remember those who have gone before us… to bless them and surround them with our love and gratitude.

Go gently… do not disturb!

Three Questions and Answers

By admin

On January 6, 2019

In Thoughts From My Fireside

Be like the mighty oak, well rooted and connected to the place you live in, strong and firm.

Here in North Wales it is fine, sunny and mild today- very spring-like in fact. Already the darkness of the Winter Solstice feels a long time ago… even though, in reality, it is only just over a fortnight. Before the calendar was changed back in the 1750’s, today would have been Christmas Day and is still known to some as ‘Old Christmas Day’. We have passed Twelfth Night. Most of us have now taken our decorations down and put them away for another year… well… eleven months at least!

Time to turn our faces firmly towards the new year and all the opportunities, challenges and excitement that it might bring with it. What will you do with your year? Like an enticing blank sheet of paper, we metaphorically stare into the endless distance and ponder what to write – fleeting impressions of ‘all that we have planned to do in the new year’ flash before us and we feel… suddenly totally overwhelmed. An overpowering impulse to turn around and run back to the other side of Christmas with all its promise of comfort and excitement assails us, but here we are, with our backs to the wall of New Year Passed and nowhere else to go except forwards into the huge unknown.

Like everything else, it is a case of taking tiny little steps, one at a time. Most of us have just come through the Christmas festivities and regardless of how much or little we enjoyed them, it is the one time of year which is definitely guaranteed to be deeply emotional. We actually need time to recover from it all. We have been whizzed about on an emotive and emotional merry-go-round for weeks before we even reached the 25th December. Now is the time to access your feelings, your position and reground yourself. Literally.

Go outside. Doesn’t matter what the weather is doing, even if it is tippling down with rain. It also doesn’t matter where you live. You can still reconnect with nature and the Earth, even if you live in the middle of a huge city. Yes, you can. Feel the ground beneath your feet. Perhaps you are standing on fresh grass or earth? Perhaps there is a hundred feet of concrete and piping between you and natural ground? It doesn’t matter. Know that your feet rest upon our natural planet – our man- made jungles are also a part of it. Feel your energy flowing down into the ground, seeking the true centre of our Earth, consciously connecting yourself to it, and in return, the energy of the Earth pulsing up into your feet, your legs, your body. Feel that strength and allow yourself to smile as you welcome it… allow that smile to grow into joy as you sense the power and strength of our natural home course through you, filling you with courage and healing.

Look up into the sky. Allow your mind to wander with your vision. Do not try to focus on anything in particular… in some circles it is called ‘soft gazing’. All this space, all this air, all this potential is yours. Breath deeply and pull the energies of the air into your chest. Feel your mind calm and clear as your mental processes fall back into rhythm and harmony.

Stretch your arms above your head… out to your sides… be aware of the space you inhabit, now, this moment. This is your space… your time… your place. And now, start from here.

Answer yourself three questions:
What is the most pressing thing that you need to do first?
What are you afraid of?
What can you do that will make your heart sing?

Go back inside. Perhaps think about it more deeply. Write your answers down.

Don’t keep panicking about what might happen or what you should/could be doing. See where these three answers take you. As you progress, repeat the practice and see what three answers you next come up with. If they are the same, they might need to be refined – split into several/many answers, or more questions and answers. Write them down like a family tree, beginning at the top of your page with the main issue and splitting, refining, defining the issue until you have a pattern of answers and consequent actions.

(A little tip here is that you can always ask other people what they might do in a similar situation. You do not have to copy them, but they might have suggestions to make that you have never thought of.)

NOW you have a plan.

A very happy new year to you all!