I'm writing this on the 1st January, and so many of us are focused on a fresh start, new goals, or maybe even just the relief that a difficult year is behind us. Wherever you sit on that spectrum, I wish you health and happiness in 2023.
It's fair to say I don't really connect with New Year's Eve: it's something that has - for some reason - never felt quite right to me. I have the urge to hunker down at home, eating something slowed-cooked and warming, while a strange feeling lurks within me. A feeling that all the energy that goes into this one night of the year is a little, well, misplaced. Nevertheless, it still feels like a time of transition, which is something I can't help but explore.
This feeling of transition drives me to spend the weeks leading up to New Year's Eve focused on reflection, as I scour the previous 12 months for the things I want to take with me, to do more of, or to celebrate, and the things that I want to learn from or to leave behind. But however hard I've tried to set New Year's resolutions, I've finally come to a realisation that I want to share with you:
January isn't the time to make fundamental change: it's a time to prepare for it.
As you read that line, I'd encourage you to reflect on how it feels. For me, I know I feel a deep sense of relief! As I look out of the window, the evening is beginning to draw in and we'll soon be wrapped in the velvet blanket of night. Signs of winter are still all around us and Nature remains at rest. New Year's Day doesn't signal any change in the Earth: she is still as she was yesterday.
Over the coming weeks and months, though, she will slowly begin to awaken. The days will get gradually longer, life blinking out of the darkness of a long winter. The first Spring flowers will emerge from the previously icy ground and the trees will prepare to erupt into a riot of blossom. In places that we cannot see, the Earth is already preparing herself to bloom in Spring, and it's that same energy that I want to encourage you to embrace. We know that good things take time, and that goes for the cultivation of positive habits that will help us to achieve the long-term changes we desire. If it feels right, I encourage you to embrace the coming months as an opportunity to make progress at Nature's pace: slowly, gradually and gracefully.
Prioritising kind and gentle care of ourselves during the final months of Winter is a wonderful habit to cultivate if it's not already part of your practice, and to help you do this, The Noble Duo Introductory Kit is on sale with 15% off until 7th January at the fabulous price of £38.25. I don't have a regular sale so if you're thinking about trying The Noble Apothecary, now is the time.
However you're starting 2023, I wish you a year of abundance, fulfilment and joy ahead. With love, Rachel x