The last episode of the year, E04 looks back on 2020 & forwards to 2021, exploring what winter solstice celebrations might mean across time, place & purpose, & reflecting on the challenges & learnings of this year in a conversation with writer, speaker, entrepreneur & futurist, Ed Gillespie.

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In part 1, I muse over what it means to get to the other side of the winter solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere tilts its furthest away from the sun and the journey back towards it begins. Daylight on winter solstice lasts only 7h50mins, almost 9hrs less than the summer solstice. This leaves us in just under 16 hours of darkness, which is almost as much light as we receive in mid-summer. Once we’re the other side of the solstice though, we can start looking forward to those longer days once again. On December 22nd, dusk falls a full minute later; by Christmas Eve, we get an extra two minutes of light; by New Year’s Eve we see an extra seven minutes of light; and, by the 5th January, a whole twelve minutes more light. So that’s something to look forward to.

For part 2, I was lucky enough to interview writer, speaker serial entrepreneur and futurist, Ed Gillespie, about this enormous year and what we might take away from it. Ed is the author of ‘Only Planet’ - a book about his circumnavigation of the globe without getting on a plane, and a new book of poetry - Songs of Love in Lockdown. He co-presents two brilliant podcasts - 'The Great Humbling' and 'Jon Richardson and the Futurenauts - How to survive the apocalypse'. Ed is also the co-founder of Futerra - an international change agency that specialises in business transformation and award-winning creative communications, runs the London Speaker Bureau and is a facilitator of responsible leadership development with the Forward Institute.

In part 3 we have a solstice message from Balance Garden’s founder and co-producer, Jasmine’s Uncle Mark, which you can read in full here. I apologise for an error at the start of the podcast, when I say that he appeared on the first episode of the podcast… That was his other half, Tom Mettyer, pictured here with Mark at their home and organic farm in Dorset, Haddon Copse.

Part 4, as usual, reflects back on the themes of this month’s podcast and leaves you with a closing message for 2020. The podcast will be back in January 2021, along with a full new schedule of yoga and meditation classes from an amazing collective of teachers. You can try any of the classes for free for the first week of January so watch this space! Until then, wishing you a very happy new year.

It has not been an easy year. But it is not the easy things that have taught me the most important lessons, led to my biggest achievements or given me my best memories. Easy isn’t necessarily best.