Ahead of Imbolc this Sunday, here’s some words from Rev. Tony McNeile of the Unitarian Earth Spirit Network:

“Greetings for Imbolc – 2nd February! Our world is waking up. I was scraping frost off the car this morning and it didn’t feel as if the world was waking up – but I know it in my bones. Look at the garden! Green shoots appearing. Snowdrops have shown their white heads and now they are opening. On the golf course this morning we saw two cock peasants confronting one another. One would win the hen. It’s getting lighter earlier and darker later. The laziness of winter is giving way to doing some of those jobs that have been waiting for attention. Energy is returning.

On Monday the people of Ireland will be enjoying a holiday – St Brigid’s Day. I smile to myself and many others will. St Brigid was a wonderful real woman. The nunnery she founded was built by an old well which celebrated the goddess Brigid. She emerges each year as a maiden from the winter crone. Her new life brought blessings to the children, to blacksmiths and all who worked under nature’s sky. We can see Brigid in our mind’s eye and feel her spirit touching ours and lifting the veil to reveal the world becoming new.

Enjoy the day and look forward to Spring.”