Spirit Level - The De's of December

It’s the last month of the year — a season of celebrations and festivities designed to brighten the darker days. But what is December, really? Dec- once meant the tenth month until calendars were reshaped to suit emperors, systems, farmers, and politics. Even the moon keeps its own measure of thirteen lunar cycles, reminding us that time is elastic more often than we gather. This certainly isn’t a lesson about timekeeping, but a gentle question about how we spend the time we have.

The final lunar cycle, the Cold Moon, arrived recently. It invited us this month to release… The quiet turning toward the year past and the invitation of the year ahead. A natural pause to ask oneslelf...

What do I wish to let go of? And what do I want to carry forward?

December is a fabulous month for reflection, a marker, an ending, a clearing for a beginning. We call January the start, though in the northern hemisphere it feels cold, dark, and hardly the moment one’s soul or body leaps into action. Animals hibernate. Shops shutter after the rush. Spring, for me has always felt like the truer beginning. Winter is the breath before the exhale. The ground rests. Nothing is asked of it. It is't under pressure to produce. We can do the same.

So how might we choose to spend our December?

It is a perfect month to de-stress, de-clutter, define, de-story — and ultimately deepen. An invitation to delete what no longer serves us, to delve into what does, and to develop the wisdom to know the difference.

Look back to 1 January 2025. What were your hopes then? What twists did you navigate, what landmines did you sidestep? Who joined your circle? Who quietly drifted away? How have you grown, softened, strengthened, learned? This, without guilt, comparison or performance is the ground from which real resolutions grow.

Every New Year brings a collective hope that we will “do it better this time.” But didn’t we already do the best we could with what we knew at the time? If the answer is no… perhaps that is the only resolution we need to address.

So before the New Year even begins, I’m tackling the De words:

Decluttering both my house and my mind, taking notice of what deserves space and what no longer belongs.

Detoxing my body. Choosing what nourishes instead of chasing chips.

De-storying (the kinder side of destroying) the narratives that are simply no longer true “for me”.

Deleting the limiting beliefs that hold me back.

Defining and remembering who I really am underneath it all.

And Deepening the connections with those that matter.

All this to make room for the J words to flourish.

Journeys

Joining and connection

& Joy…

There’s a joke in here somewhere about February, but we’re not there yet… look forward to fun, fabulousness, freedom, family and friendships…

Trying to be clever aside, a date on a calendar does not decide when change can happen. A resolution is not set in stone. Like anything, it is there to guide us, to dream of what we wish to become and make steps towards that. A mis-step is not a failure, but instead an opportunity for data collection. To observe without judgement. Progress, not perfection.

We don’t have to wait till next year to have a resolution, next monday to start a "diet"... Every moment is a New Now to choose differently. Every morning is a new beginning. Every breath is a reset.

Gratitude for where we’ve been and where we wish to be is the key to self-kindness.

Wishing you a beautiful, nourishing holiday season.

With gratitude, from all of us at Platform 13.