Hibernal ℰ𝒾ℊ𝒽𝓉 𝒩𝒾ℊ𝒽𝓉𝓈 ℴ𝒻 𝒮𝓂𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒥ℴ𝓎𝓈

[Vacyr]

Night 4: Hope (yesterday)
Last night I lit the candles at sundown and turned off the lights. I quietly existed while the candles burned down until they went out and the room was painted in darkness. I remembered thinking of how much light only five little candles offered, only really appreciating their light once they were completely out. It gave me a profound sense and I hope others out there can take the time to focus on the light, even when it’s dark out.

Night 5: Kindness (today)
I feel like I touched on this point in my previous posts but I’ll try to spin it a new way. One of our cats is a scaredy boy. At any unfamiliar sound, he’s ready to zoom under the couch never to be seen for the rest of the day.
But the love that we’ve shown him is really taking root after two long (loooong) years. Slowly but surely, he’s sleeping on the bed or on thr couch next to us, tensing but not running when we turn a corner too quickly, lets me pick him up, and actually comes meowing and running over when he wants attention (aka belly rubs).
It just goes to show that with time and patience, showing kindness is not only rewarding but can increase the quality of life of those around us.

 

[sleepybear]

Night 5: Kindness
I am so thankful of the kindness shown to me. Many times, I like to pay kindness forward. Today, a local vendor gave me free bagels as a thanks for stopping by and celebration for me new job. I passed along the free bagels to my former colleagues at my previous job, because I had the time to stop in and wanted to brighten their day! Also I felt safe cause an employee that made it unsafe was no longer there.

I want to continue to pass along kindness, big and small ways, every day.

 

[Inquisitor Xeno]

Night 5: Kindness

In many different ways, I've heard it said that you can never know what kind of day someone is having, so you should always choose to be kind. I try to live by that even when it feels impossible to do so. It's the little things that can some times make someone's day after a terribly long day.

It's also important to be kind to ourselves, something that I oftentimes struggle with. Lately I've been trying to say three kind/nice things about myself out loud in the morning. And today those things were: I am an energetic writer. I am taking better care of myself. And I have very pretty eyes. It's gotten easier and easier to be kind to myself, and often times I ask myself how I would be kind to a friend, and then do the same for myself.

 

[MioBrave]

Night 5

Kindness has always been really important for me. It's always my goal to be kind where I can, though sometimes that means I forget to prioritize myself. It's yet another thing I need to find balance with. But, there's a quote I always think of from one of the songs in the English version of Kiki's Delivery Service.

"If I can make just one life better, bring a smile to your face when you're under the whether. Then I'm feeling like I finally found my home."

And, I feel like that's really true for me. Wherever I can help people smile, that's home.

 

[GremlinSage]

I've missed some! Life is just so damn busy ;-;. But today was the last day of the semester \o/ It's been an interesting few months, and also I guess it falls under the courage? It's weird to go to school after 20 years of being out.

Kindness is strange to me. I always offer it while also trying to avoid it in return? I'm not sure that makes sense. I always try to help others when I can, especially when it comes to mental health and relationships (family, dating, etc). I'm not a therapist, so I help where I can. Though it is something I'm working toward.

Got nothing for hope. I don't have hopes. I have expectations of everything failing so when it doesn't, I don't feel so bad. I realized after writing that, that my biggest hope is my son doesn't have to struggle in the future with money and housing as much as we are right now.

 

[MioBrave]

Night six

Learning. I wouldn't be who I am today without all the things I've learned so far. I'm hoping to keep learning more things going forward. Sometimes lief lessons are harsh, but sometimes I never fully process something until I'm hit in the face with it. Going forward, hopefully things like that don't have to hit me quite as hard before I understand them.

 

[sleepybear]

Almost there!

Night 6: Learning
I plan to purchase Clip Studio Paint Pro for the holidays to start digital illustration and painting again. When Adobe skyrocketed the price, I immediately cut my subscription. I miss the extra free stock photos and the UI for the most part. I switched to Affinity photo before I knew the same owners of Canva bought it, although I did notice a downgrade in quality after two updates. So, good old school Clip Studio it is. I'm excited to learn the new interface and experience how it "feels" with my Cintiq. Every program has its own thing. My primary painting program for now is Paint Tool Sai; which I will always have on any and all PC device I have. Excellent for manga-like illustrations, and I've done some semi realistic work with it as well. With that said, I still miss the brush variety and other options of Frodoshop, and Clip Studio appears to have a similar UI and options as the years have gone by.


Night 7: Joy
I spent the day with family. My grandmother is 5 years away from 9 decades on this plane of existence. My young cousin was at the party and he is a HOOT. He opened some presents, one of which was a little remote control car. This kid...I have not laughed so hard in a while...he tried to hit my foot with the car, but he steered the car in circles. I mean...this kid would place the car 1 inch from my foot and still would wind up making the car go in a tight circle, avoiding my foot entirely. Again, brought me so much joy to watch him play and figure out how to get the car to work.

 

[MioBrave]

7

Joy! A few things that have given me joy lately. I beat Pokemon Legends Z-A. It was slow at first, but super awesome in the end. I've also been getting some art edits done lately! So yay for productivity! Other than that, my days are pretty much all the same.

 

[wine]

Ooh? Another badge?!? Better late than never, right? … >.>
Neaaarly night #8: light spreading out.

For me, this translates to be the good you want to see in this world. Don’t wait for kindness, love, respect to come to you, don’t look for these things either… rather, be kind, be loving, be respectful, etc. There’s nothing stopping you or standing in your way, nothing outside of yourself impeding you from putting out exactly what you seek. It’s so easy for us to be angry.. to blame our anger or our bad mood on the jerk who cut us off in traffic, on the incessant whining we endure with our kids, on the stress that is straight up just surviving in this economy.. but negativity only begets more negativity and our emotions are not things we’re subject to willy nilly. You can choose to be a light, you can also choose to be an extinguisher. Neither role is more or less important than the other and “time” will pass either way c:

 

[MioBrave]

Night 8

Light spreading outward... Well, what I've noticed is that, a lot of these all seem to overlap. So, this one to me just seems like days getting brighter and better. Just learning more day by day. Growing to have more courage and hope. To spread more kindness and joy, and to be grateful for your family and all you already have.
So, here's to that. To better and brighter days ahead of all of us.

 

[sleepybear]

Night 8: Light spreading outward
I wish some of my joy today became a light spreading outward. As I sit here, lit candle on my desk, I'd like to think everyone has a little light in themselves they share with the world.
I also want to make a dedicated effort in the coming year to use my artwork as a way to let my inner light shine.

 

[TheMoonAuthoress]

Night 8 - Light spreading outward.
"Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself", the Golden Rule, is something that has been with me for many years since I first heard it, and I find it very useful still. But I've also learned to show that "You can do better", meaning if someone treats me badly, I don't have to do it back. I can do better. Responding with positivity instead of spreading the negativity. 2025 has been ups and downs, but I hope that if someone tries to be a little better, then hopefully it will make a little difference or a big difference for someone else. Just a smile or kind word can be the biggest light of someone else day.
I wish you all and Sanctum a bright 2026
Let us all shine and spread the light!

 

[Vacyr]

Night 6: Learning
You get out of it what you put in.
I'm a strong advocate that nobody has bad talents or bad skills, they lack the proper teaching to understand it. That's not to say we don't have inherent abilities or a natural predisposition to brain wiring but...
Fear of failure prevents learning in so many cases but don't forget that everyone starts off as a beginner. Each fall, each wrong note, or each poorly executed punch is teaching you. Just remember its a marathon, not a sprint. Every black belt started out as a white belt, after all.
With sufficient time and effort with the right kind of practice, you can improve significantly and learn the unknown. Its not going to be easy, but since when has life been easy?

Night 7: Joy
The Inner Sanctum.

Night 8: Light spreading outward
Yesterday was the solstice which means that every day from here on out will get brighter. You never know what brightness you can bring to another persons life who might really need it. Don't do it for likes or for recognition, but just because you want to put a smile on someone else's face. We need empathy and kindness, so go out and be the change you want to see in the world.

Now that you've heard me yammer on for eight nights, I shall go back into RP hibernation stasis. Happy Merry Winter everyone!

Thank you @GremlinSage for putting together this event