Dendritic Opal
Eco sterling silver and Sterling Silver
 
Winter in Britain contains the polarities of life. It is able to bring us to silence with its utter beauty, whilst also at times seeming unendingly dark and grey. I feel like this polarity is powerful symbolically.

Many of the most profound moments of growth in our lives occur in such conditions. Anyone who has experienced grief will understand that in the moments of utter darkness and despair something else exists too, a slither of light. In heartache, we are shown how deeply we have loved, it is through experiencing its opposite that we truly come to understand what we mean by love, joy or serenity.
 
Therefore, the dark nights of winter bring moments of contemplation, reflection and sometimes melancholy. We often withdraw or go inwards. Yet in amongst it all we are blessed with frosty dawns and poetic snowscapes. Reminders that beauty and light are to be found in every season.

We live in an age that doggedly pursues happiness, crazed on dopamine-seeking highs whilst rejecting the vast array of colours and shades to be found in human experience. Contentment comes not from ignoring the more difficult aspects of life but through witnessing it all and still choosing to participate, to love and to find beauty.

There is wisdom to be found in winters endurance. The emergence of snowdrops and daffodils at the beginning of Spring holds great symbolism. In those flowers, new beginnings and brighter days are promised and yet by the end of the summer every year we have begun to take nature’s bright hues for granted, just in time for the turning and falling of leaves. With everything sacred, we must be reminded of its profundity by enduring its loss and in its disappearance realising that there is still beauty to be found there too.

As we roll through January the nights are getting just a little bit lighter, it seems as though the birds are beginning to sing a little louder and I hope that I have learned a little more.