Writing towards the light
7 days of reflection, beginning at the turning
We’re coming very near to the end of this year. I hope that you are finding time for calm reflection, and that you are feeling optimistic about what next year will bring.
This week, I will be sharing my daily reflections, exactly as they flowed from my pen each morning. I have been thinking about the shift from darkness to light that begins on the Winter Solstice for me here in the northern hemisphere.
On January 29th I am beginning the Winter Writing Sanctuary with Beth Kempton . This will be my very first activity of this type. I am not, by nature, a joiner, so it will be a shift for me. But change is good. I am looking forward to it.
I’ll let you know how it goes.1
Do you prefer to listen to this Jumble of Sea Glass?
Writing towards the light:
7 days of reflection, beginning at the turning
22 December 2025
I have a tremendous opportunity. I am going to take it.
This is my plan, written in pen.
Not in pencil on scrap paper.
Plans might change, but not the intention.
Written in ink.
23 December 2025
Beginning on Midwinter’s Eve, I’ve been reading The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, following the reading schedule, as a buddy read with my youngest who is 21. This book is targeted towards 8 - 12 year olds, but that isn’t obvious to me in the reading.
I am not a fantasy reader. This is not my type of story, but I was taken by the idea that I would read each chapter on the same day on the calendar the fictional events would occur. It has been interesting, thus far.
As I read about the adventures of this 11 year old boy, I can’t help but think of all the 11 year old boys who have read and loved this book. Not just boys, of course. And also, readers of even younger ages.
And I’m remembering how I felt as a younger reader, often reading beyond my age level.
I remember that feeling of reading about ordinary kids who discovered that they were, in fact, extraordinary. Whether it was a magical thing, or the discovery of a unique talent, these characters were suddenly thrust into a new and exciting existence.
How many readers dreamt of this shift away from our lives? Some kids sink into books as an escape from troubled lives. Others, like myself, were just seeking adventure.
I am no longer an 8 year old living through books.
I am 58, and I am free. I do have agency. I feel the excitement of an 8 year old, suddenly discovering that longing for adventure.
I think all of us secretly hoped that we were beyond the average. We would do amazing things. We were the chosen one.
As I read the story of Will Stanton in The Dark is Rising (I’m only on day 4 – so no spoilers), I am becoming that bookish 8 year old who is immersed into the experience of becoming the boy whose life is turned upside down when an incredible secret is revealed.
That 8 year old may lack agency but can manifest any dream through the power of reading and imagination.
I am no longer an 8 year old living through books.
I am 58, and I am free. I do have agency. I feel the excitement of an 8 year old, suddenly discovering that longing for adventure.
When I close this book, at the end of the 12 day reading cycle, I won’t be reaching for the next book in the series. I’ll be preparing to take flight. Literally.
8 was great. But 58 is fantastic.
Come fly with me.
24 December 2025
It is the time of year when some start musing about their word of the year for 2026. I don’t do anything particularly official. I generally don’t even write anything down. But I do often set intentions, or mull over possible words.
This year, unexpectedly became the year of paradox. I’ve always been a bit fascinated by this word, even from childhood. It’s a long story.
But this year, with the creation of The Travel Paradox, I have fully embraced this word. But I did not plan that in December of 2024. In December of 2024 all I could think about was that I was finally travelling to Antarctica!
I’ve done a lot of thinking of late about intentions, and guiding words. I could write you quite a list. (You can find one set of words in my Dec 20th post, Writing into the Darkness Ep 6.)
For now I’ll just share 6 very basic words that came to me on the first day of writing towards the light.
Choosing • Plotting • Creating
Challenge • Grow • Learn
Are you choosing a word for 2026? I’d love to hear about it.
25 December 2025
Some thoughts on Christmas – the reality of Christmas
This morning I’m happy to know that this day will be slightly longer than the last one. I also keep in mind that for half the world this day will be shorter.
Many people around the world will celebrate Christmas today. Some as a full religious event. Some as a more secular event.
Many, possibly most, will be acknowledging or observing Christmas, a celebration that was imposed in the past by other rulers. Many incorporate Christmas after moving to a different part of the world.
It is possible that celebrating Christmas can be seen in some places as a sign of affluence. Or maybe it is about ‘fitting in’.
Christmas is also fraught with pressures and disappointments. Family difficulties and increased loneliness. Too many struggle with the need to prove they are having a ‘happy Christmas’.
Christmas can feel too hard to contain. It can feel like it has taken over everything.
Or it can feel like it has left you behind. Like it works for everyone but you.
I don’t know who will actually read this message, but maybe it will meet someone where they are right now.
I hope you’ll decide today to make this day what works for you. Maybe this year will be the start of building the ‘celebration’ or ‘observance’ you actually want.
I wish you well, in whatever you do, or don’t doHappy December 25th to all. Happy 4 days after Solstice to everyone!
26 December 2025
Boxing Day
Boxing Day. The day after. The next set of sales. In Canada, we carry on this British tradition, but no one is really certain what it means.
This morning, on the day after Christmas I’m thinking about a number of things. Here’s a précis. Maybe something here might connect with you.
Christmas with aging parents whose health is deteriorating means it is unlikely that next Christmas will be similar to this one.
We do a very quiet Christmas. We buy very few presents, and often give secondhand or handmade gifts.There is no obligatory gifting. No list checking. No pressure. But also no expectations.
I don’t enjoy cooking a big meal at Christmas. My husband does. He does almost everything while I do the potatoes, gravy and a vegetable. Every year he decides whether or not he wants to take on a big dinner. When he does decide to stop, we’ll just do something else.
We acknowledge that he is solely responsible for our amazing Christmas meal, and we show our appreciation. But he is not obligated to cook in that way that women for generations have been obligated.
Only one of the kids was home this year. Together we are reading The Dark is Rising on a schedule (see December 20 and 23 posts) and so we spent our quieter moments reading our chapters. I have discovered that her college years have made her a faster reader than me. I love that, particularly since she once struggled with reading.
I have been thinking a lot about how so much pressure is put on people (mostly women) to create the ‘perfect’ Christmas. So much effort, expense, and energy – much of which is expended without awareness or acknowledgement.
Is this what we really want? Is it what our families really need?
Is this ‘obligation’ tradition one we want to pass on to our daughters? Just a thought.
And I’m thinking about ‘unboxing’ on Boxing Day. Maybe that means revealing something. Maybe it means ‘unpacking’ something, in the self-help jargon way.
As I write, surrounded by gentle pools of light on this dark and early morning, I’m not sure which ‘unboxing’ will take place this day.
We’ll have to wait and see.
27 December 2025
Today I write. As the day dawns, by candlelight. In the language of my birth. I put pen to paper, and the ink flows easily and naturally.
Everyday, I also write in Spanish, in language so halting and limited that it hardly seems possible that these two activities are even slightly friends. They are definitely not related.
What a discovery it has been to find the communication of the simplest facts to be near impossible. Having to distill everything to its simplest form to contain it within my limited vocabulary. To dissect each utterance into the tiniest bit, analyzing tense and gender. Stuck at every turn.
And yet, the formulation of the most basic sentence brings a tremendous sense of achievement. In that one moment lies hope that I could be understood. In that hope lies the confidence that I can do this, even if I do it badly.
Somewhere I saw this:
El que la sigue, la consigue.
He who persists, succeeds.
It isn’t actually that profound. It’s just true.
But I keep it on a post-it on my computer to remind me.
I will never sit down and have Spanish flow effortlessly from my pen in the way my own language does, but that is okay. It is its own kind of magic to write a sentence in a new language, no matter how simple.
Embracing challenge and a new way of doing things will bring an abundance of rewards. I am reaching towards the light of a new year and all it will bring.
28 December 2025
I have written through the darkest days of the year. I have celebrated shorter days and long nights. I have embraced the dark by bathing in gentle pools of light. I have focused on rest. And on restoration. I feel ready to move ahead.
I am looking forward to the challenges that stretch before me. Some that I will choose. Many that will befall me without warning. But that is life.
Hopefully, I have prepared myself to be ready for those challenges. I have built up my strength and I’ve chosen resilience.
Flexibility. Adaptability. Determination.
A life well lived.2 A life filled with psychological richness.3
That’s where I’m headed. See you on the trail.
In my mind, sea glass is a pretty good metaphor for lessons learned through hardship, beauty that comes from brokenness, and the weathering that allows us to be our best selves.
Here are some beautiful things I have found on Substack
I highly recommend Beth Kempton’s Kokoro: Japanese Wisdom for a Life Well Lived
I also recommend reading Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and experience make a Fuller, Better Life by Shigehiro Oishi
JL, this felt like sitting beside someone quietly tending a small flame — attentive, steady, unhurried. I loved the way you let the days speak for themselves, without forcing meaning onto them, and how the turning toward light was both literal and deeply interior.
Your reflections on agency especially stayed with me — that shift from being the child who escapes into books to the adult who can actually choose flight. That line, “8 was great. But 58 is fantastic,” landed with such clarity and joy. There’s something powerful about honoring the imagination of youth while finally inhabiting the freedom of adulthood.
I also appreciated the gentleness of your Christmas reflections — the permission to loosen obligation, to question what we pass on, to let celebration be quieter and truer. And the Spanish practice alongside your native-language fluency felt like such an honest portrait of learning: awkward, hopeful, imperfect, and deeply alive.
Sea glass is the perfect metaphor here. Weathered, changed, still luminous. Thank you for sharing this stretch of darkness-to-light so generously — it felt grounding and companionable in the best way.
💛 Kelly