Happy Chanukah – let’s bring light into our lives

Happy Chanukah – let’s bring light into our lives

The festival of Chanukah celebrates the miracle of oil in the desecrated temple that was due to last for just one day, lasting for eight days till more oil could be made/brought. The everlasting light in the temple is supposed to symbolise a connection to the divine.

As the days draw in and get shorter, I appreciate all the more the glorious sunny days we have had recently. The light shining on the leaves enriches the golden colours of autumn.

Whatever our beliefs, we can reflect on how we keep our own inner light flickering and alight, even when things feel very dark and challenging. Keeping a connection to whatever the divine means to us, it may be connected to a spiritual or religious belief or to the miracle of nature and the world around us. We can reflect on experiences, occasions, opportunities that have occurred in our own lives that have felt miraculous and unexpected, seemingly coming from nowhere. We can also pause for a moment and take in all the things around us that we take for granted, that are all in their own way, miraculous.

Taking a walk in Epping Forest last weekend, it was magical lying down on a thick crisp bed of golden leaves to take a moment to look up at the sky and watch the trees sway gently – stillness within the movement.

Just as yin and yang are always interconnected – yin being stillness and yang being movement….let’s find ways of bringing some stillness into the busyness of our lives…taking a moment to just look up and enjoy the miracles around us.