The Longest Night

While the photo above was taken earlier this year, the layers of light and dark within the picture have a special poignancy for me today.  Humanity dances within the rhythms of light and dark.  

The longest night, winter solstice, has interesting and arresting vantage points for the soul, not only now but over much of time in the past and in many cultures.  (see the New York Times article, The Longest Night).

I think it is natural for us to be uneasy with darkness, to feel thwarted by the things we are unable to do or complete without the light.  How can we function without our sense of sight? How will we avoid the pitfalls?  It lowers our sense of control and safety, strips us of the cloak of accomplishments and visible possessions that we hide in.

Each year older I become, I hope that I can learn to come a little closer to terms with the rhythms of light and dark.  To wrestle against it less, to let it instruct me more.  How would my life enlarge and grow if I followed the footpath of my failures to some discovery rather than avoid that trail at all cost?  What seeds can I shelter in my hand and heart, dormant in the dark, dreaming of spring?