Today it is a MOMENT OF SUSPENSE BETWEEN THE DARKNESS AND THE LIGHT A TWIST THAT COMES TO US EACH YEAR TIME OUT OF MIND.
It is now many days since the YULE LOG started to burn away the darkness and many more since you took the MISTLETOE into YOUR OWN HOME where it all began a distant memory of a kiss kept alive with CANDLES and LIGHTS and STARS and ROCKETS and SNOW falling e’en in the warmth of YOUR OWN HOME where ANGELS sneak and SHEEP bleat and REINDEER creep into your thoughts in the guise of plants and you live in hope and fear and can you hear the distant DRUMS and the ringing of the BELLS as you gaze for what seems like hours at pretty BAUBLES and perhaps you put an ORANGE in a sock and wondered what life is all about while chewing on a KOKOSMAKRONE and now there is nothing around you but SPACE and nothing makes sense any more this is CHAOS this random collection of SPINNING CHAOS and this is the point where you find yourself face to face with the QUEEN OF THE UNDERWORLD and the SPINNING suspends and you give her your MISTLETOE and you say to her have it please it is a GIFT it’s pretty but poisonous i don’t know what to do with it really they told me to WAIT and not to rush into the arms of darkness but i couldn’t stop myself and she says O i know a thing or two about that and she offers you the seed of a POMEGRANATE but you are no fool you know it will trap you here in DARKNESS forever so you say NO and she says fair enough i will return with you instead soon to the SUNLIGHT and she puts her hand on your hand and she is so soft and she says suddenly O what it is to see to TOUCH a warm blooded being once again she says there is just a little more DARKNESS and then we will journey together towards the SUN and hear little ROBIN REDBREAST sing once more and this is what today is.
And there is no password for today think of it as a GIFT.
A PRECIOUS GIFT
Today, in London, your gift begins at 8.04 and ends at 15.53.
It is a short gift but there are shorter further North.
Some people have different sized gifts and that’s just how it is.
Gift giving : An informative history with Oddvent expert, Kate Hargreaves.
As dawn breaks wherever you are, you might want to write a little message to a friend or loved one.
Birdsong, to get you in the mood :
If you send us your message (in the box at the bottom of the page), we will read it on the radio later today, for, all going well, we should be live around 15.53 as we plunge into darkness. If you were to try to listen at the moment you would hear this :
But later on you will hear some sounds - here on this very page. Odd vibes and music and a bit more history. Perhaps even a warm blooded living person, speaking to you as if in the same room. At 6pm, it’s She Goat’s Solstice Songbook - a cosy half-hour of musings and tunes (we are well into evening now) and after that, some music to wrap presents by with Neil, with Sam, if all goes to plan with the cables.
Dedication.
Hiatus.
Song.
For this, our festival of light in this time of great darkness.
We are held together by copper wire and string.
I did not record the radio session but here are a few things that were played …
Today the pictures and thoughts on gifts come from Kate Hargreaves.
Some other thoughts from Gemma.
Here you can write a message.
And choose an adjective to describe the music you’d like to hear next to it.
