Good morning all and Season's Greetings from me and the Cocooning Christmas Kittens!!!

I hope everyone is doing well as we find Christmas in the depths of Winter! And this year of all years, I think we are appreciating the twinkling lights of Christmas!

This email will bring you poetry, yay!!! and an invitation to join me for two Christmas art workshops, ho ho ho!!!

Christmas Art Workshops
Sunday 13th and Sunday 20th December
10:30 - 12 noon on Zoom

Make some Christmas cards together, put up your tree with us, listen to Christmas music, and enjoy some Christmas creativity!

Please email me to let me know if you would like to attend!

And now the poetry .. one by Patrick Kavanagh and a beautiful one sent to me by a client..... both contain wisdom and reflections that to lighten our way these days!

Advent

We have tested and tasted too much, lover-
Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.
But here in the Advent-darkened room
Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea
Of penance will charm back the luxury
Of a child's soul, we'll return to Doom
The knowledge we stole but could not use.

And the newness that was in every stale thing
When we looked at it as children: the spirit-shocking
Wonder in a black slanting Ulster hill
Or the prophetic astonishment in the tedious talking
Of an old fool will awake for us and bring
You and me to the yard gate to watch the whins
And the bog-holes, cart-tracks, old stables where Time begins.

O after Christmas we'll have no need to go searching
For the difference that sets an old phrase burning-
We'll hear it in the whispered argument of a churning
Or in the streets where the village boys are lurching.
And we'll hear it among decent men too
Who barrow dung in gardens under trees,
Wherever life pours ordinary plenty.

Won't we be rich, my love and I, and
God we shall not ask for reason's payment,
The why of heart-breaking strangeness in dreeping hedges
Nor analyse God's breath in common statement.
We have thrown into the dust-bin the clay-minted wages
Of pleasure, knowledge and the conscious hour-
And Christ comes with a January flower.

Lockdown Life

Life stopped. Tumbleweed rolled.
People retreated to their humble abodes.
Bird tweets on repeat saw nature reemerge; dusting off cobwebs that had shaken it's core.

Left idle in time, the days passed by.
No choice but to do the simple and kind.
Resilience and strength aided adjustment.
We reverted to the simplest of things, we essentially converted.

The mind amplified by a thousand thoughts,
the loudness of which became quietened with time...
I found my breath and heard my heart beat, and stood on the grass in my bare feet.
I truly have felt more than ever before because I stood and I listened rather than scorned.

I stopped. I made time for me.
It wasn't all an ease, but that in essence is true learning you see.
Anything worthwhile can be difficult to pursue, but once you reach the summit, it feels like true joy and brand new.

Life and society will always find ways to push.
You must realise and learn how to ssshhhh... the negativity, the ogres and the naysayers; just fire them on a collective bandwagon entitled the drainers!

Perspective is key.
You have a choice in what you wish to see, so choose the view that brings you comfort and peace.
Why suffer and be burdened just because...
Your life is yours, take and embrace what you've got.

Wishing you all a very happy, restorative and healthy Christmas Season!!

Warmest wishes,

Emilie