New light
Just a few weeks ago, we experienced the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year…
On the evening of December 21st, 2025, we gathered for a candle-light forest walk here in Tuscany to mark that turning point.
In the quiet glow of flame and stillness, we paused together at the threshold between darkness and light.
There was no urgency, no need to define what comes next. Only an invitation to be present with what was, and what is quietly beginning to change.
The Solstice, for us, has always been less about celebration and more about recognition. A recognition that the deepest point of darkness marks a shift towards brightness. The light does not arrive suddenly. It returns gradually, almost imperceptibly, yet inevitably.
That evening has now carried us into this new calendar year, not with resolutions, but with intensions, and full attention to bear witness of the shift to new light.
As January unfolds, we find ourselves already walking in that new light. Not only the days are slowly lengthening, but metaphorically speaking, a new light is emerging across many aspects of life. A light that invites a different way of seeing, ourselves, one another, and the world we share.
What stayed with us from the candle-light walk was a sense of community. A collective permission to let the new year emerge rather than be constructed. To listen more carefully. To move at the pace of nature, not the calendar.
This theme of New Light continues to guide our work at Universe Mindfulness as we step further into the year, in our Shinrin Yoku walks, our retreats, and the way we experience nature and one another.
It reminds us that presence itself is transformative, and that new beginnings don’t need to be dramatic to be real.
We are grateful to have crossed that Solstice threshold together. Whether you were here with us physically or not, we all now move forward, slowly, consciously, into what is becoming more visible.
Sunset over the Apuan Alps - Tuscany
The new light is here, and it continues to grow brighter.
