Light and Love Amidst the Darkness

Greetings to all on this Winter Solstice Day! Today marks the fewest hours of light in my part of the world.

It has been a dark year in many ways, and it would be so easy to yield to despair, but I refuse to believe that the darkness will overtake everything with so much love and light in this world, often manifested as acts of generosity and kindness by ordinary people. The following poem by Jan Richardson captures it best for me.

Wishing you love and light today and throughout the year ahead!

How the Light Comes

I cannot tell you
how the light comes.

What I know
is that it is more ancient
than imagining.

That it travels
across an astounding expanse
to reach us.

That it loves
searching out
what is hidden
what is lost
what is forgotten
or in peril
or in pain.

That it has a fondness
for the body
for finding its way
toward flesh
for tracing the edges
of form
for shining forth
through the eye,
the hand,
the heart.

I cannot tell you
how the light comes,
but that it does.
That it will.
That it works its way
into the deepest dark
that enfolds you,
though it may seem
long ages in coming
or arrive in a shape
you did not foresee.

And so
may we this day
turn ourselves toward it.
May we lift our faces
to let it find us.
May we bend our bodies
to follow the arc it makes.
May we open
and open more
and open still
to the blessed light
that comes.

“How the Light Comes” © Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons. Used by permission. janrichardson.com