I have done quite a bit of travelling in the last few months and recently returned from a trip to Kenya.

When I got back to the UK it was much darker than when I left. Of course, I know that every year the clocks change and the nights draw in. But it always comes as a bit of a shock when at half past four in the afternoon night is falling. Where has the light gone?

Because Kenya straddles the equator it gets dark and light at virtually the same time whatever time of year it is. The sun rises at 6.30am and goes down at 6.30pm. Like clockwork, every day it’s the same. The seasons, and time, work differently. Also the light is different, brighter somehow.

So landing back on a dark morning in the UK, I felt a bit depressed. It’s cold and dark and the country I left just a week or so earlier has changed. The light has gone and it feels just that bit harder to keep positive, hopeful. I am sure I am not alone in finding this time a little bit challenging. How do we find light when it seems we are surrounded by darkness?

Reading the Irish writer and poet John O’Donohue I wonder if he might offer us a way to re-find the light. He says ‘…all around you there is a secret and beautiful soul light… Close your eyes and relax into your body. Imagine light all around you, the light of your soul. Then with your breath, draw that light into your body and bring it with your breath through every area of your body.’ (John O’Donohue, Anan Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World)

The end of November marks the beginning of Advent, the time when the Church prepares for the joy of the birth of Jesus. It is no accident that this light comes in the middle of this darkness.