The Night, The Dark...and The Light

Mid-Winter here, here in the Northern hemisphere. We are surrounded by the dark nights, broken but a little by short, short days.

Sometimes, when in the dark, it can be difficult to see other than...the dark. Whether that is the darkness of night, or a darkness that makes days, as well as nights, difficult to navigate.

The days when the Nature we struggle through mirrors the struggle to just get through.

Not easy to appreciate that the light doesn't leave permanently. It can, it will, it does, take time to reach us again. But reach us it will.

It was the reality of the dark and the belief in the reality of the light returning that caused those who went before us to create reminders. Reminders made of stone. Reminders made of festival. Reminders made of belief.

The reminders didn't, and don't, change the darkness. Without or within. But they align our perception with reality.

The light can, will, and does, return.

We need to give it, to give ourselves, the time it will take.

But these beliefs are foundational to us, this wildly hopeful and flawed species that we are.

And so we reach out, reach across, reach through, to others, to ourselves, to who we are. Irresponsibly hopeful, even when it we can see nothing but the dark.

As was said so very long ago, "On those living in the shadow of death, a light has shone."

To those looking to the light, to those needing the light, to those providing light for others, I wish you well in this holy night.

Darkest before the dawn

The phrase entitling this post set me thinking.

Such phrases litter our language, hinting at a hopefulness I believe is at the core of us as humans.

Deep in Winters long ago (fadó, fadó - the Gaelic equivalent of 'once upon a time...')... So, long long ago in the depths of Winter, we sat through the long nights and remembered, told stories, of the warmth, the light, the bounty that flowed from the sun in Summer. We consoled ourselves that the sun had returned before, that new life had sprung from the cold earth, that we had seen other Summers before, and would again. That the people, the tribe, the group would again be saved.

Later, as knowledge grew, we learned to measure the change in the course of the heavens so it could be seen that there would come an end to seeming endless nights.

Celebrations sprang up, for we are a celebratory species - perhaps a little too pleased with ourselves when we think we understand something, but the celebrations were warranted.

So, little surprise that my own religious tradition builds upon this celebration, borrowing from older traditions, beliefs. "...people that walked in darkness...seen a great light"...the thought of new life born to us...that we would be safe.

It calls to something deep within us as a species. There can be but one answer - hope.

So, whatever your tradition at this celebratory time of the year, I wish you joy. I wish you peace and, most of all, hope.

Time marches on, it would seem.

We received our first Christmas card today. Perhaps, were I living in the southern hemisphere, I might be able to think of Christmas in this heat. But I'm not, and today was not "Christmas-y cool". So, not today.

Our good friend, the Lady C, has no such limitations. Now I think of it, the Lady C is quite short of limitations. She was, however, shocked (shocked, I tell you!) to see Christmas cards already for sale in Dublin, Ireland.

I mean, there's Thanksgiving yet, not that they celebrate it there. But Halloween too. And they celebrate that there. It's her favorite holiday. Says it's the only day she can go out as herself, and nobody notices.

Don't ask.

None of this, of course, stopped her buying one. She included the receipt with the date circled so we would know it really was bought in September. She also ringed the price so we'd know we were worth several Euro to her. Quite what she has planned for the Crayola Gigantic Colouring Set, also on the receipt, I don't know.

Another "don't ask" moment.

Still it's nice to be thought of. And to be thought of by her, ah well...

I've based three characters on the Lady C. And it will take many more to do more than hint.