At 8.20 yesterday morning I was standing in a very chilly car-park waiting for someone, Actually about eight people. Believe me this is not my usual meeting-up time – but this was special: our winter solstice dip in the sea.
Now I know sea-swimming throughout winter is very radio 4; but I have to ask, what better way to mark the beginning of the end of winter than a short dunk in midwinter waves?? By the time my pals arrived, one or two with hangovers from a gig last night, we were almost at sunrise. So clothes and robes we hastily stripped off, and waded into the slate-grey sea.
It was cold, nippy cold but not bloody cold (that’s in February when the sea has proper cooled down, if you’re interested). Anyway, as I joked with my friends, once your lady bits are wet you might as well just plunge in; a cold fanny ain’t no fun. So I pushed off and swam, probably for less than two minutes in the dawn cold, the lightening cloud and bristling briny air.
Almost to my surprise I found myself repeating thanks aloud like an incantation: thank-you thank-you thank-you. Super-alert from the all-consuming cold sea, I felt only sheer joy and appreciation for everything I have in my life right now. Doggy-paddling in my woolen beanie (plus my fluorescent swimming costume and lipstick) I was a bobbing little salty sac of joy.
I swam back to my friends, we laughed and joked and even shared a witchy winter solstice chant. Then most of us waded back to shore for cups of tea. Mug in hand, I zoned out for a moment thinking how, amidst the terrible shit being afflicted on people across the world, a momentary sense of having literally just bathed in appreciation was something precious to hold onto.
So many of us are emotionally weary, heartbroken even, at the terrible state of our world: the cruelties and impunities, the bloody double-standards of hard-men presidents, the corruptions and all-out massacres, the self-righteous justifications of decisions that bellow injustice. It is hard to find joy in the world right now.
Christmas itself feels like a parody; relentless not-very-joyful shopping for excesses that fuel debts and stress and make no contribution to what most of us seek most of all, which is connection and love.
So I want to offer a few reasons to be at least tentatively cheerful in these mad-sad times. They are deliberately quite random, and I hope they’ll make you smile as we zoom towards the end of another crazy year on earth. It has not all been bad.
First, here in the UK we may be increasingly broke but we are still generous: 50% of us donate to charities – contributing a whopping total of nearly 14 billion pounds (GDP) to causes we support. And if you follow the money, it’s often those of us who are always a bit broke who tend to give more – of course.
Second, almost half of adults in Scotland volunteer too: I work with a local food rescue project – we pick up stocks from local supermarkets that would otherwise be chucked away, deliver them to our charity store fridge and sell good-quality food for £2 a bag. I will do my last run this year on Christmas eve, distributing goodies to a social project offering free Christmas lunches to anyone who needs food, company, or both on the 25th.
Our small community also donated more than £4,000 to a Palestinian NGO – the Aisha Association through several fundraisers this year. Aisha staff used the money to cook up hot meals they distributed to hundreds of families displaced in Gaza. We know this will not affect the trajectory of this horrific ongoing war by the Israeli government against the people of Gaza – but our efforts quite literally put food on tables for hungry families.
Third, local conservation efforts here in the UK have rippled into national-level changes: with otters, beavers and even wildcats making come-backs across the nation. After years of decimation otters can now be found ‘in virtually every river and watercourse in [our] country. It’s remarkable’ – said the head of nature recovery at Nottinghamshire wildlife trust.
Though Britain tragically remains one of the most nature-depleted nations on earth (ranked below Libya and even North Korea for God’s sake) there have been a few other beautiful successes. Scotland’s wildcats, described as ‘functionally extinct’ just a few years ago, are bouncing (or clawing) their way back in a ‘highly effective’ reintroduction project based in the Cairngorm mountains. Personally I detest pussies – but wild cats rock.
And fourth, there was even some tentative good news from the Middle East this year – and they need it more than most of us. After Syrians finally got rid of parasitical dictator Bashar al-Assad (in December 2024), hopes were high. A year later much of Syria still lies in ruins, new president Ahmed al-Sharaa stands accused of allowing abuses, and massacres, against minorities like the Kurds, the Alawites and the Druze to continue. But friends with strong connections to Syria tell me there is also some optimism about lasting change, with more than 780,000 Syrians returning home to help rebuild their country. Action Syria is a small NGO supporting these efforts.
I hope these glimpses of the possible make you smile. Feel free to disregard them, or to replace them with your own reasons to be cheerful. In the kindest sense of the word I care not what you do with them. Just maybe consider what you have right now, and how to treasure it as we career towards the psychosis of consumer Christmas.
Me, I’m off to drink wine and put up our Christmas tree (actually it’s just a big driftwood branch I found on the beach, to be tarted up with magic mushroom fairy lights, I can’t wait!). And remember, the darkest days of winter are just behind us, solstice has turned us the corner towards light.
I wish you each the happiest Christmas possible – and do stay in touch.
