It is nearly December (as I write this) and many a deciduous tree is
still in leaf, indeed green leaf, as it has been warm for the season so
far. (When all the leaves do come down, our Council won’t be
emptying our Green Bins, more is the pity!) Now that we have moved
back to GMT, the dark evenings are very much with us, however, and
daylight hours are getting smaller. In the Christian calendar, we are
getting into the season of Advent, a time of waiting and hoping.
Advent ends with Christmas, very much a time of lights-whether it be
candle light or Christmas tree lights...-that fill our hearts with joy.
Our Hindu and Sikh neighbours have also recently celebrated Diwali,
the festival of lights, with much the same theme of ‘light in darkness’.
COP26 did not achieve agreement on everything that needs to be done, but there is much to be grateful for, not least among them the acknowledgement of the urgency for action.
Hasn’t the Pandemic brought home to us facets of darkness and light!
How bleak our Christmas looked this time last year, and how the
vaccines became our light on the horizon, growing in brightness as
2021 progressed. And yet, most of the world is still in darkness as
regards Covid-19 vaccines. This is dangerous and damaging not only
for them, but for the whole world, because the more people infected,
the greater the chance of variants appearing. Let us hope that 2022
will turn darkness into light for many people around the world.
Christmas is just weeks away and we know that the Covid numbers
are still high, even in our highly vaccinated country. We can but hope
and pray that families can continue to meet and have a happy
Christmas and New Year.
Comments