Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott.
I'm sitting on a pile of rocks up here on Dartmoor.
It's a very grey afternoon,
Low low clouds,
A real sense of cool dampness in the air and I've got my back to the southwesterly wind.
So at the moment I am looking eastwards across the moorland and my favourite hawthorn tree is not far away,
Lonely on the landscape.
And there are a few gorse bushes,
Thorn bushes,
Resplendent with yellow,
Almost looks like they've got Christmas decorations on them.
Yellow flowers of the gorse is wonderful to see,
A bit of splash of colour in this landscape of green,
Dying brown,
Orangy,
Bracken and then the yellow of the gorse flowers.
And today is Christmas and I just want to say to those of you who are listening,
Christmas greetings.
And for me today is a recollection of Christmas is gone by.
I was born up in the Christian tradition so Christmas is a festival that is seared into my memory and my heart in a really good way.
My family brought me up and I had lovely Christmases,
Great feelings and recollections as growing up as a child around Christmas.
But the message I really want to share today is one about laying down arms.
And I'm not talking about arms as in weapons,
I'm talking about laying down those stories,
Those aggravations that come between us as particularly family members,
Laying them down at Christmas.
We've actually got a Christmas lunch arranged today,
We call it the Waif's and Stray's Christmas lunch where we just invite people who maybe would be on their own or haven't got somewhere to go to and my mum's coming as well and around the table will be people and I know that everybody around the table has got their own stuff going on,
Things that are tricky and hard that they've got to manage.
And I also know that around the table we can create a space of real love and connection.
And my dad actually is very much in my mind as I contemplate Christmas.
My dad was really inclusive,
He was a very strong minded,
Stubborn individual,
Very intellectual.
Bless him he died last year but there was one thing that he really held deeply true and that was about keeping communication channels open with the family,
With his family,
At all costs.
So for me as a daughter growing up and with my siblings,
If things got a bit wonky and we went what he felt was astray,
He would endeavour to let us know what he thought but also always,
Always keep the channel open that we could come home if we needed to.
And I remember one Christmas,
It was the first Christmas when I had met my,
What was to become my husband and he's been my husband now for over 25 years,
Gosh it's a long time.
I was really young when I met him,
I was a young 20 year old,
22 year old I think I was at the time and he was separated from his wife,
He was in his late 30s with two children and it was not a match that my parents welcomed.
They could see that it would potentially have lots of problems and were concerned about how I might deal with it.
And I remember I met him in October and my parents found it really hard to adjust to the idea that this man was going to be a feature of my life and I think they rather hoped that I would get over it and find a more suitable boyfriend.
But I do remember when my dad asked what my husband,
Who is now and he was my boyfriend at the time,
My dad said what's he doing this Christmas and I said well he's on his own actually this Christmas.
And my dad said invite him round,
Invite him round to a family Christmas lunch and I was really surprised because I thought well gosh that's the last thing you want is to have him around the table,
You're finding it really hard to make sense of me going out with him.
But my dad said no,
Bring him,
Bring him for lunch.
So that's what I did,
I took him around for Christmas lunch and I've always remembered that,
Always remembered that my dad,
Even though he really struggled and I knew that he just did it from a good place,
He loved me dearly and he wanted the best for me and he struggled to think that this man was going to be in my life and there might be real upset and difficulties that would occur and yet he laid aside any sense of what he didn't like in a hope that he could create connection.
He created connection with me and he created connection with my boyfriend at the time who was then to become my husband and I really am so grateful for that.
It could have been the start of a rift in our family but it wasn't and that's because there was someone willing to lay down their ego,
Lay down their arms,
Lay down their upset and allow a space of connection.
So I hope you have a lovely Christmas and I hope you appreciate this message of togetherness and connection as you enjoy this festive period.
