I have awoken with a fire in my belly, a good fire, one that speaks of life, a beacon in the dark, and if I place it on a high enough peak perhaps you can see it, perhaps it can light a flame in your heart, and when you feel its warmth, then you may be able to light one too, to pass it on, for each of us can be a light in the dark for someone else, and someone else, and someone else, until there is a chain of golden light shining far and wide connecting us one to another. © Leah Bracknell.

Today will see the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, the shortest day and the longest night, when shadows close around us. The cold moon is little more than a silver sliver in the sky, struggling to pierce the heavy pall of clouds, and…