Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott.
I'm standing in the valley between two hillsides here on Dartmoor.
I've got Weston Beacon on my right hand side and on my left hand side I've got Butterden Beacon and all around me is yellowy brown grass and clumps of thick thorny gorse bushes and they're a very dark green against the sort of yellowy brown of the grass and ahead of me spilling out of the sky like a waterfall is a rainbow coming from dark clouds down to the earth below.
It feels really spectacular and if I turn behind me the sun is getting weaker as it dips down ready to fall below the horizon and mark the end of another day and today's reflection is all about Imbolc which is a festival celebrated in the Celtic calendar and also celebrated with a different name and slightly different connotations in the Christian calendar.
The 2nd of February is known as Candlemas and as with many of these pagan and Christian festivals they have different names and different meanings and yet there are symbolically areas that overlap and are common to both and my reflection today is about the Celtic Imbolc and the Christian Candlemas.
Candlemas is a time for traditionally lighting candles and in the Celtic calendar it marks the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox and for me I can really see this at the beginning of February as a welcoming back of the light.
Of course the winter solstice gave us that sense of moving away from the darkness to lighter times but in December it's more about the expectation and potential of spring and then summer rather than the experience of it but here at the beginning of February with Imbolc the sense of light is reality.
It's noticeably lighter now in the evenings and the mornings and there's a real sense,
A rush of expectation and a thrill of looking forward to the lightness returning and spring not being far away.
So Imbolc,
This is a time for me and I'm going to suggest for you too to spend some time reflecting on new growth,
On the newness of that which is emerging in your life.
It feels as though the winter months have lost their grip or are losing their grip and it feels as though time is now looking towards new life.
In the fields around us soon new lambs will be calling to their mothers,
The birds are starting to get ready to mate and to raise their young,
You'll notice blossoms starting to emerge,
Catkins,
Pussy willows emerging on the trees and blossoms and crocuses and the snowdrops are out,
Daffodils coming up.
This is a time when colour starts to come back to the world and so my request to you and it's going to be something I engage with myself is that you spend some time,
Why not light a candle?
Light a candle welcoming the light back into the world and why not spend some time reflecting on what is fresh,
New and emerging in your life.
Imbolc is a time of reflection,
It's always a time of noticing a transition and a new phase and for me as I watch the sun dipping behind me and I see the fading of the colours of the rainbow as they spill out of the sky and I reflect on what's coming up,
I realise that this is a time of reflection,
It's a time of renewal,
It's a time of allowing and making space for new growth to emerge within me and it's a time to be curious,
It's a time not to know what exactly is going to take form and be created through me.
So today if you light a candle and if you just spend a bit of time reflecting,
Give yourself time and space to consider what new and fresh things are emerging in my life,
How can I give space for these new creations to take form.
