While shopping in town the other day, I was blessed with a beautiful reminder and lesson in the impermanence of life. Tibetan monks creating a sand mandala. These exquisite works of art can take up to several weeks to create. Exquisite patterns in precise detail are formed out of granules of coloured sand.

Once complete, the whole mandala is destroyed, the sand collected and released back into nature, reminding us to release attachment and rest in the understanding of impermanence.

This lovely reminder came after a dream I had of planting flowers in a place where winter was soon to come and cover the land in snow and ice. Yet the presence of the flowers brought such joy and delight that the lesson was to plant the garden and enjoy the beauty in the present moment, even whilst knowing it will not last.

With Christmas upon us, it was good to be reminded of the impermanence of all material things and to thus focus on energising the true spirit of this time... as I heard a very special Santa say tonight: "the most important thing about Christmas is LOVE - it is the spirit of ' i love you' with which we gift each other, rather than the gifts themselves, that really matters."

And as Helen Keller so exquisitely put it: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart."