The turning of the year : December 2021
A month of meditations
past/present/future
Jeni Smith invites you to write each day.
Take ten minutes for yourself and your writing.
Write or draw.
Give yourself this time to pause; allow thoughts to flow; allow stillness.
1st December
It’s national tree week. Think of a tree you love – or have loved. I think of the carob tree in the convent in Haifa where I taught, the larches behind my parents’ house, broad paths through beeches, Start with a tree. Write.
2nd December
Snazzy dressing. What do you like to wear for an evening out, or in? Think of winter glad rags from the past, triumphs and disasters. What are you planning for this winter’s round of celebrations? Will you custom make a fancy jumper? What is your favourite warm, snuggly outfit ever?
3rd december
Fire. What are your memories of fire – the bonfire in the garden, bringing in the wood for the log burner, toast made by the fire, baked potatoes in the ashes. Do you like to light a fire? Write the ritual.
4th December
Solitary. Time alone. Do you crave it, fear it, tolerate it? How is it best to be alone? Where? When. Describe a moment alone.
5th December
A winter posy
‘One made a posy…in winter?
You’re crazy! But look…seeds, dried weeds, bryony vine and old man’s beard.
from The Winter Bear by Ruth Craft and Erik Blegvad
What’s in your garden, the park, the hedgerows? Make a posy. Write a posy.
6th December
Sweet things. On St Nicholas, boy bishops gave gifts of apples and nuts, symbols of harvest and plenty. In the eighteenth century the royal House of Orange and Nassau introduced oranges to the custom and honey and spice cakes were given. Start with a gift of sweetness. Fruit. Bright oranges. Honey cake. A tangerine in the toe of a stocking. Heavy winter spice cakes.
7th December
Homemade. This year, more than ever, we are thinking about the home made, the individual, the sustainable. Do you plan to make gifts this year? What do you make or bake? What have you made in the past? I can’t forget the failed marrons glace weeping on a plate in a cold pantry …
8th December
Winter away from home – in other people’s houses with their different traditions; other countries in different climates, perhaps your first winter living away from home. How was it? What did you learn?
9th December
Think about coats. Think of a coat you loved so much that you wore it till it fell to bits. Maybe you still have the coat. Describe the coat. What was it made of, what colour and texture? How did it feel to put it on? Where did it come from. What was in its pockets? Where did it go?
10th December
Winter markets. Even the most humdrum market is different in winter. Think of a market. Is it indoor or outdoor? Is there a smell of chips, or samosas, or hot pies cooking? Is there music? What are the traders calling? Think of the cold, shoppers bundled up and laden with bags, the temptations of mulled wine, scented candles, ridiculously priced Cox’s Pippins.
11th December
Winter music. Is the Salvation Army band out playing carols in your local shopping centre? Are there performances of the Messiah? Will there be a carol service? Are sleigh bells ringing, is there mistletoe and wine, is Santa stuck up the chimney? Write about winter music.
12th December
A letter. Write a letter to someone important to you. You may have seen them just yesterday, or not for years. They may no longer be with us. Say what you want to say. Speak directly to them. This is a letter that you may or may not decide to send.
13th December
‘It is the years midnight and it is the dayes’
John Donne A Nocturnal Upon St Lucies Day being the shortest day
Well, not quite. All this calendar changing malarkey has muddled up the whole festive season. But it is St Lucy’s day: dark nights, dark mornings. Write about being in the dark. And a light, there, too.
14th December
There are not Christmases, there is only one Christmas – a composite day made up from the haunting impression of many Christmas Days, a work of art painted by memory. Each of us is a store house of all the many different ways we have experienced Christmas - happy and sad - from the inside, or looking in.
15th december
Write about the winter sky: frozen blue, overcast, bruised or flaming at sunset. The first stars, bright in a pale sky. The ghost of the moon. Write about the sky today.
16th December
What have you learned? Write down at least three things that you have learned in the past year. Expand on that. More than three? Keep writing!
17th December
Saturnalia. At this feast, gifts of candles were given. Think about candles, lit in darkness, set in a window in memory, blazing on a birthday cake, called upon in a power cut. Here comes the candle to light us to bed. Start with candles. What are you memories?
18th December
In 18th and 19th century England, Christmas pie contained a pantry full of birds. What extravagances of food do you prepare, have you prepared at Christmas, or for Eid or Hanukah or Diwali? What are your staples? Write out the recipe, What are the rituals? Go for it: feast.
19th December
Outcast. Winter, and Christmas in particular, makes me worry. I think of friends and a warm house, good boots and gloves, shared meals; and I think of those who have no shelter, of cold pavements, dark doorways. I never do enough. Take a moment to write about the edges. Write about what you do and don’t do.
20th december
Toast. Write about toast, or toasted teacakes, or crumpets. Write down the best kind of toast, the kind of loaf, the way the butter oozes, what you spread on it, the toaster, the grill, the toasting fork. (And then get up and make toast!)
21st December
Bedtime. It’s the winter solstice. The shortest day. Tell us about going to bed in winter. About getting up on a winter’s morning. What are your routines and rituals? Write about sleep.
22nd December
Out in the dark, early evenings, and it is hard to resist the lit windows of houses where the curtains are still not drawn. As a child, I used to love the train ride home from London as we passed houses and flats and glimpsed a dozen brightly lit stage sets, a peep into homes that were both the same and different from my own: a dresser, stacked with crockery, lamplight falling onto a sofa, a table and chairs in a bright kitchen. Most of all, I loved it when the actors entered, a pan carried across the room, a coat shrugged off, a woman bending, towards a child, maybe? And then I read Wind in the Willows and understood the magic of the lit windows that Mole and Ratty pass on their way to Mole’s home. Write about being out in the early dark; what scenes do you glimpse?
23rd Dece,ner
The Germans have a word for it – of course they do!
Weilnachtsstimmung
Christmas feeling.
Go.
24th December
Christmas Eve. It always feels too busy to have time to write. My great grandfather used to buy the turkey on Christmas Eve, and the tree, which then had to be decorated. I was always wrapping the children’s presents at midnight, with food to prepare and guests to entertain. But take a moment. Find yourself a quiet space. Write about being busy. Let the busyness flow out of you – and then pour yourself something warming!
25th december
Find yourself a quiet moment. Pause. Count your blessings. Acknowledge the sadnesses. Write down the story from this year’s Christmas, or from the whole year, that you would like to remember.
26th December
Boxing Day. When I was a child, it was still customary to give Christmas boxes. To the milkman and the postie and the man who delivered the coal. To whom are you thankful? Does someone deliver your milk? The woman who walks through the village picking up litter? The neighbour who takes in parcels when you are not at home? The dog walker you always see on the way to the park, who always smiles and says hello? Make a list.
27th december
A game of cards, Monopoly, Twister, Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit. Tell us about indoor games. What are the rituals? Are you a wily winner or a cantankerous loser? Tell us how to play. What is inevitable?
28th December
Best books. Now, if you are lucky, you have some time to read and maybe some new books to get started on. Write about books. What have you been reading? Which books do you return to, which have you given, what book are you going to write yourself?
29th december
Winter walks. Where do you like to walk? Where have you walked this year? Where do you plan to walk? Write the pleasure of a winter walk in town or country. Or the pain of it, if you must! Tell us of a walk we should try.
30th december
Look back over the year. Count your blessings. Write down at least three good things. Keep going.
31st december
Read Farjeon’s poem below. Write down a hope. Don’t agonise over resolutions. Write down some things that you would like to happen. Make them simple. Make it possible for you to achieve some. Write down one thing that you plan to do that you have not done before.
Happy new year.
Welcome to the New Year Eleanor Farjeon
Hey, my lad! ho, my lad!
Here’s a New Broom.
Heaven’s your housetop
And Earth is your room.
Tuck up your shirt-sleeves,
There’s plenty to do –
Look at the muddle
That’s waiting for you!
Dust in the corners
And dirt on the floor,
Cobwebs still clinging
To window and door.
Hey, my lad! ho, my lad!
Nimble and keen –
Here’s your New Broom, my lad!
See you sweep clean.