Hello and welcome.
We meet in early evening.
Wherever the day held for you,
Whether it felt full and purposeful or scattered and unfinished,
You are here now and that is enough.
Find a comfortable position and let your eyes gently close.
Take a breath in and a long slow breath out.
Again breathing in and breathing out.
Let your body know that the doing is done for now.
Once more breathe in and on this exhale feel your weight drop into your chair,
Onto the floor,
Into the evening.
Imagine yourself approaching a small stone bothy as dusk falls over the hills.
The sky outside is deep blue and amber at the edges,
The first stars just beginning to appear.
Smoke rises from the chimney,
Thin and silver against the darkening sky.
You can smell the peat.
You push open the low wooden door and step inside.
It's warm here.
Firelight moves across the stone walls and there's a chair waiting for you,
Worn and comfortable,
Pulled close to the hearth.
You sit down and let the warmth of the fire settle around you like a blanket.
In the Scots Gaelic tradition,
The storyteller,
The Sannaígí,
Understood something important.
That every day is a story.
Not a list of tasks completed or missed.
A story with its own shape,
Its own moments of tension and ease,
Colour and shadow.
Tonight you are both the storyteller and the one being told.
Cast your mind back to the beginning of your day,
Gently,
Without effort,
The way you might leaf through the pages of a well-loved book.
Let the scenes come as they will.
The morning,
The middle of the day,
The afternoon.
Now,
From everything that the day helds,
Let one moment come forward.
Just one.
It might be something that moved you.
A kindness,
A small achievement,
A moment of unexpected beauty or connection.
It might be something quiet that you almost didn't notice.
A conversation,
A view from a window,
A moment when you felt,
Briefly,
Like yourself.
Let that moment rest in the firelight.
Just look at it gently.
This is the moment worth keeping.
This is the ember of the day.
Reach out in your imagination and place it into the fire,
Not to lose it,
But to honour it.
To say,
This happened.
This was real.
This was mine.
The fire crackles softly.
Outside,
The hills are settling into the night.
And you are here,
Warm and hurried,
And a little lighter than when you arrived.
The story of today is nearly told.
You have played your part in it well enough.
Take a slow breath in,
And a long breath out.
Begin to bring your awareness back to the room around you.
Back to your now.
The sounds of your home,
Your evening,
The light around you,
The surface beneath you.
Open your eyes gently when you are ready.
The fire will keep burning.
And tomorrow,
There will be a new story.
Thank you for sharing this practice.
Have a beautiful evening.
