The lights are growing dim and the days are growing shorter. With each passing breath, we know we’re getting older. It may sound lyrical and poetic and it is. I say it is inspiring and enlightening. Despite the long dark nights and cold winter days, let us celebrate light, in a hundred different ways.

Let us celebrate growing older because it comes, hand in hand, with the joys and wonder of our friends’ and loved ones birthdays and family dinners. The passing days are marked by anniversary dinners, graduations and a host of other beautiful celebrations and holidays that enrich our lives. If you were to light a candle for every celebration you had this year, I bet your room would be ablaze (ok, not on fire! I mean ablaze in gentle, soothing candlelight!)

In the darkest of the months, embrace the smiles that greet you, as you step from the darkness, into your warm lit family home. I say hello to all the members of my plant family (and it is extensive!!!). As I enter from the drive, I also nod, with warmth in my heart, to the giant Grandmother Cedar that welcomes me. The short days and the cold winter nights urge us to love and enjoy. Celebrate each day.

How? By reflecting and enjoying..

Enjoying what?

Enjoying a stroll in the first snow of the season.

Enjoying a nicely chilled eggnog.

Stopping along a side street and listening to a group of carollers, singing once again!

Enjoying a warm steaming triple baked potato pie with friends and family.

Or how about my favorite: A bowl of freshly popped popcorn with your loved ones , cozied up in blankets, immersing yourself in a hallmark Christmas movie.

There are so many celebrations coming around the corner. Do you hear them? I think they are heralded by distant jingle of sleighbells, no? No wait, is it the joyful beat of the

From winter solstice to the arriving of the winter season to Christmas and New Year’s: Which of these brings the greatest smile to your face? Out of every darkness a light is born. Out of the great mystery of the universe, you and I were born. This miracle of life AND light couldn’t be more true than at this time of year.

It’s a wonderful time to celebrate the duality of who we are. Embracing our Light and Dark, we create true harmony. Accepting our natural duality, we grow into strength and power. We exist and therefore we get to experience the joy and wonder of our family our children, grandchildren travels, and growing up. As we welcome change, we are giving joy and wonder to enter into our lives.

As you light the first candle on your Advent Wreath, honour the Festival of Lights with your Hanukkah candles, break out your African drums, song and fruits for Kwanzaa (matunda ya kwanza) or dance under the moon celebrating the Winter Solstice Yule (birth of the Sun) with candles adorned with lace ties, know that you are in good company. You are in the grand company of billions of humans.

We have all arrived on this great mother earth to celebrate being human. There is no better month than December to begin. We have all come from the darkness, as a spark of life and are born into this world (or of this world, as some say — Read Eckhart Tolle anyone?) I dare say, this month is a most wondrous month to celebrate everything from family, good health, our beliefs, and our fortunes to living another day, seeing the earth complete its cycle and begin growing daylight anew on December 21st (Northern Hemispheres).

Will you join me in growing the light of our human spirit?

“The universe is an example of love. Like a tree. Like the ocean. Like my body. Like my wheelchair. I see the love.” — Ram Dass

Monika Meulman, Founder & Owner
The Healing Muse
416-347-5449

The Healing Muse Apothecary
Inspired Living
@healingmuse
www.healingmuse.com