“Your path is illuminated by the light, yet darkness lets the stars shine bright.”

– J.L.W. Brooks

This week, we welcome the winter solstice - the shortest day of the year. Now with days curtailed before four o'clock, the shortness of days always appears to come upon us suddenly. But have you seen the light? The unveiling of festive lights feels like an antidote to cold dark days, and the countdown to Christmas has undoubtedly begun.

The blackness of night becomes the perfect canvas for the magical illuminations that adorn buildings, skies and homes at this time of year.

A trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew has inspired today’s offering - an intention to bring you some bright, light-filled joy. My favourite installation at Kew this year was this incredible majestic tree, heavily laden with lightbulbs...

London is the most beautiful city at Christmas time (biased, of course!) Living in this great city, you don’t have to make a special trip anywhere - you happen upon the most marvellous displays when turning a random corner. It’s enough to make the heart flutter and breath stop in delight.

From the humblest of fairy lights sprinkled across the balconies of adjacent flats to the grand light projections that grace the walls of Battersea Power Station, the lights make me smile so broadly.

Like a moth drawn to flame - the shiny, the sparkling, the simple - I’ve been pulled in, standing in lucky moments in the warm glow of light, totally mesmerised.

Please permit me to share with you a few more pictures I took on my phone: my footprint (well, cycle-print 🚲) of London Lights 2023 in glorious illumination...

Perhaps the lights signal the season of celebration, of togetherness and belonging. Apart from our associations with festive traditions, nostalgia, child-like wonder and indulgence in beauty, why do the lights enchant us so? They seem to have a way to naturally evoke something within.

Is it our own internal light that brightens inside? A warmth, a joy, a hope?

Give me everything - from the classic simplicity of a string of white lights to the extravagant, superlative creativity of the most inventive and colourful installations.

There’s an innocence to simply enjoying the lights. They all spark a little inspiration for the soul, whether memory, remembrance, gratitude or wonder.

Do you have any favourite illuminations you never miss? Please share any pictures you’ve taken around your neck of the woods, especially if they bring you similar pleasure in sharing.

See the light, Be the light, Share the light ♥

Let’s practise.