Some mindful moments of a winter day lit up by glorious sunshine. As the sun sets, a stillness rests over our village. We end our day with Wordsworth for a cottage fireside evening.

Winter Evening Mindfulness

No noise is here, or none that hinders thought.
The redbreast warbles still, but is content
With slender notes and more than half suppressed
Pleased with his solitude, and flitting light
From spray to spray, where’er he rests he shakes
From many a twig the pendent drops of ice,
That tinkle in the withered leaves below
Stillness, accompanied with sounds so soft
Charms more than silence.
Meditation here
May think down hours to moments

From ‘Winter Morning Walk at Noon’ by William Cowper

In Our Village

‘Do not close the curtains. Let the January evening depart of itself…Lose not a moment’s chance of contemplating beauty, each of these seconds while the day changes into night is precious; in this is life. The deep sleep of winter’s night is on the silent wood—the wind is still in the leafless trees stark as if frozen.’

from ‘Chronicles of the Hedges’ by Richard Jefferies

Before closing the curtains we pause to look out of the windows at late shafts of golden light and shadows, before the sun dips and the moment has gone. Outside the blackbird flies to the hedge to its roost. A party of jackdaws that have been playfully wheeling about in the evening light move off to spend the night in a nearby roost. A lone, furtive squirrel feeding on the last few remaining seeds dropped from the squirrel -guarded bird-feeders scampers off into the bushes. We hear a late evensong from the robin. The lights come on in the village, where the roofs and chimney pots were earlier catching the slanting last rays of the winter sun. The parish church clock chimes out the hour over the silent houses, and peace rests on the village landscape as it settles soft, dreamy and half asleep, There is something precious about this moment in a winter evening.

A Fireside Evening

In the past it would be time to close the shutters, throw another log on the fire and settle down for a fireside evening. There is the smell of roasting chestnuts and the sweet scent of the resinous logs cracking and hissing in the fire. A kettle begins to sing. We watch the fire’s whispering flames creating flickering shadows in the corners of the room, making a cosy sense of being gathered in for the evening.Wordsworth’s poem expresses the scene:

Better than such discourse doth silence long,
Long, barren silence, square with my desire;
To sit without emotion, hope, or aim,
In the loved presence of my cottage-fire,
And listen to the flapping of the flame,
Or kettle whispering its faint undersong.

From ‘Personal Talk’

The Blessing of Sleep

In Bible days sundown was the start of a new day. This is the time of the service of Vespers /Evening Prayer. Time to come home to our Creator with gratitude and praise, in whose hands lie the natural cycle of day and night, with its Circadian rhythm of wakefulness and sleep.
What a relief that day does not go on forever, especially if it’s been one of those difficult ones. On such days sleep brings welcome closure. Thankfully in God’s wise provision there is always tomorrow, a fresh day. To start again with a clean page and a renewed creativeness.

Harmony comes from following nature’s clock and ending the day well with a sense of peace and contentment.

Wishing you a happy new year