What The Twinkle Lights Hide In December

There’s something ironic about December. Every year around this time, we’re sold the idea that this month is supposed to feel magical — warm, connected, abundant, joyful. But the truth? December for many people is heavy, depressing, overbearing and overly stressful.

Sometimes this month exposes the cracks and fractures that have been painted over. Sometimes December will highlight the relationships, roles, and expectations that no longer fit who we’ve become. Many times the holiday season puts our hunger, desire, or need under its sparkly spotlight, exposing the truths that have been tucked away hiding.

I’ve lived through my own share of these moment during the holiday season. The kind where it arrives and instead of feeling its magic and excitement, you feel a dreadful, quiet, painful ache. These are the Decembers no one talks about. The kind where grief shows up, old dynamics resurface, and the pressure to keep the peace outweighs your own state of mind and being.

What The Dark Teaches Us

This month teaches us about the things you can’t learn in the light. Seasonally, It is the darkest period of time during the year, that happens to be decorated and ornamented with the most amount of artificial light. Somehow we became overly influenced through marketing campaigns that Decemeber is the brightest month of the year— when in fact, it is actually the darkest.

The Dark Teaches Us the True Value of Light

Light means nothing until you’ve been without it. It’s in the darker seasons — emotionally, spiritually, seasonally — that you finally learn to see your own light without the glare of everyone else’s expectations.
The dark strips away distraction and comparison; what’s left is the truth of what actually glows from within you. Darkness sharpens appreciation, and contrast is one of life’s greatest teachers.

The Dark Reveals That Stillness Isn’t Stopping — It’s Living

Stillness isn’t a pause, a stop, or a failure. It’s a state of being that nature moves into every year without apologizing for it. Winter reminds you that you don’t bloom all 12 months. Sometimes your “quiet” is an inner recalibration — roots thickening, energy returning, clarity forming. Stillness is not inactivity, but a unique form of life all on its own. And the dark is where that internal work actually becomes possible.

The Dark Helps You Hear Yourself Again

When the world gets loud (and December is loud), darkness offers the chance to tune back in. Not to fear, but to hear your own wisdom. The quiet of darker nights invites you to hear your thoughts clearly, without the static of marketing, holiday pressure, or emotional ghosts. The dark is where the real voice — your voice — finally becomes audible.

Ways to Preserve the Light Within

A simple reflection tool to steady you through December and the deeper seasonal shift.

1. What truth about myself or my relationships is no longer negotiable?
Let clarity be the compass. When something becomes undeniable, it’s usually because you’re finally strong enough to honor it.

2. What boundary is asking to be strengthened so I don’t abandon myself?
It doesn’t have to be dramatic. Even a small, consistent boundary is an act of self-loyalty — a quiet way of choosing yourself.

3. Who stayed close when things became uncomfortable?
Pay attention. That’s your real circle. The people who can sit with your truth without shrinking from it are the ones who deepen your light.

4. What tiny source of light can I choose for myself each day?
A ritual, a breath, a grounding moment, a practice that belongs only to you. Small light is still light — and in dark seasons, it’s enough.

These small practices help you stay connected to yourself while the world sparkles in its holiday glitter.

Let Decemeber be an invitation to separate the glow that sustains us from the artificial glow that drains us. This time of year teaches us that lesson. This is the real beauty of December: It invites us to check in with the way we’ve been fed, the way we’ve been lighting ourselves, the way we’ve been dimming out of habit or survival. And then it asks us to reclaim it. Not with perfection, not with pressure— but with truth.

This is the month where we begin to turn back toward the sun. But it’s also the time to turn back toward yourself.