Embracing the Darkness

In two days we celebrate the Winter Solstice once again as the Earth's gyroscopic axial tilt reaches its extreme on its annual journey around old Sol. As we go beyond this hiburnal episode it is hard to resist the metaphor of the increasing light ahead. But in our longing for days of warmth and light, as we sing our winter blues, it may be time to reflect on what the darkness has to teach.

Life is full of long nights, some which seem impossible to live through. But darkness can be a friend and a great teacher if a person opens eyes wide and listens to the subtle message of the night. The poets ever remind us:

     Sun punctures the night.
     A new season is dawning.
     Winter has touched us. - Scott McCray

     In a dark time, the eye begins to see. - Theodore Roethke

     The sun is merely a chaperone to the darkness - Adam Foley

     In the dark you can not see what you don't need. - Uwe Stroh

     I have faith in the night. - Rainer Maria Rilke

     The ray of darkness / God is breaking / The lesser light - Gregory Golden

     Reveal thy secrets: / Darkness stands, / Holding a lamp. - Maitrayee Chowdhury

     To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
     To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
     and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
     and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings. - Wendell Berry

     Darkness darkens but / Still deepens through / Her broken light - Gregory Golden

     Once I came here with light / Now darkness glitters... - Chandi Mandal

On this Winter Solstice, as we brighten to the prospect of the coming of more light, perhaps we need to spend some time embracing the darkness — or letting it embrace us. There are life-giving lessons to be learned in these days, as well as in our own darkest times.