Day 43: Spiritual Guidance

Days are short and nights are long.  Still dark this morning, with the moon high in the sky as I crossed the park, crunching over the frosty grass to get a paper.  Time to be bringing evergreen into the house, and setting big logs on fire - to, you know, celebrate the, um, birth of Jesus...

So, with that in mind, up to the market to get a Christmas tree today.  St Albans is in festive mood, with a Sally Army brass band playing carols, and all the stall holders wearing Santa hats and felt antlers.  Now the house smells green and resinous.  The tree is fairy-lit and baubled up.  And I am mince-pied. 

And watching 'A Christmas Carol' on television.  The Patrick Stewart version.  He's just been haunted by a door knocker/Jacob Marley.  'I wear the chain I forged in life'.  Cue redemption and transformation in the form of a tri-ghost therapy intensive.

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!"

Brutal, fast, effective, and all in the comfort of your own home. Where do I sign up?

(The Ghost of Christmas Present has a particularly excellent hat. Like a pagoda trimmed with holly. I would totally wear it.)