In the Christian Calendar today is the feast of Candlemas. While not as old as the Celtic feast of yesterday, it does date from the 4th Century in Jerusalem, and reflects the same need to mark this moment, halfway between the winter and the spring solstices. It brought light into the darkness – in the Celtic tradition by the lighting of fires, in the Christian by a procession of candles and the blessing of candles for use in the home.
Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled —
to cast aside the weight of facts
and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking
into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing —
that the light is everything — that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.
Mary Oliver, The Ponds (extract)
Mindfulbalance 
Hi Karl,
I signed up to your newsletter a few months ago, and just felt the need to reach out and say thank you. It must take an enormous amount of work to collect these poems/quotes and to line them up so thoughtfully. I am sure I speak for many others when I share my appreciation. I don’t read the news in the morning any more, instead I turn to your email to remind myself that whatever is happening in the world today is held in something far vaster and more fascinating.
With gratitude,
Eliza
Hi Eliza, Thanks for the comment. I too have switched off news these day – its not that I am avoiding reality, but it often comes with a limited perspective of and triggers a sense of lack which paradoxically fuels a need to follow it. I am glad if the thoughts each day are helpful. The blog passed 700,000 hits a few days ago and by now it is an established habit. However, I enjoy doing it as it arises from ongoing reflections in my own life in the hope that some of them resonate in other persons lives. Best wishes from a grey and rainy Kildare this morning.