let yourself be dark

.”When night came, it did not fall, as people say it does. Beyond the bright crown of earth, the heavens were always dark. Here, on this lonely hill, tinier than the smallest suggestion of a moment, I watched the darkness rise up from the ground to meet the steady darkness overhead, as if the two worlds had been waiting for the sun to go so they could touch again”,

Lauren Wolk, Beyond the Bright Sea

Let yourself Be
dark
Let your darkness expand 
to be kissed by the heavens
Unencumbered by light, 
unenlightened, unknowing, 
en-lightened, weightless

Let knowledge release its grip
into that dark unworded mystery
Be Wonder and Grace
Quiet, unspoken 
Vast, enough

Let there be shadows to dance in
to make love in
to be wombed in

Quiet to sink in
Stillness to bathe in 

Let yourself trust
as those who came before
that the heavens are trustworthy, again
It is not up to you to push
the earth back into orbit
to tilt this heavy weight back toward the light

Be free of that gravity
we will be nurtured again
our hearts will be warmed again
Love will be rooted 
Again

On this long night, where there is 
no distinction between
heaven and earth
inner and outer
space, you and me
Let it Be
One

It never was separate
It is only the light that blinds us
temporarily
on this exquisite planet
of color and texture and form 
of lush and riotous beauty
It is natural
to forget the darkness
 from which we come. 

a solstice gift for you

A collection of poems and writings compiled for your evening meditation, as you sit, as did our ancients, in the midst of this longest night, in the mystery and trustworthiness of the heavens.

Find a room where you can sit in the dark. Read through these snippets slowly, notice what rises. Don’t overthink, just notice, allow, accept or reject without judgment, what stirs in your belly, what is yours.

1.”When night came, it did not fall, as people say it does. Beyond the bright crown of earth, the heavens were always dark. Here, on this lonely hill, tinier than the smallest suggestion of a moment, I watched the darkness rise up from the ground to meet the steady darkness overhead, as if the two worlds had been waiting for the sun to go so they could touch again”, Lauren Wolk, in Beyond the Bright Sea,

2.

They (the physicists) shook light from darkness! They coaxed something out of what we normally think of as nothing—the vacuum of space, the abyss, the void. But there is no such thing as empty space, The void is in reality a quantum sea of light, teeming with activity. The question is how to glimpse it because the particles move in and out of existence in the blink of an eye.

Our entire existence is a continuous, universe-wide bringing forth and returning once again into this all nourishing ‘abyss’, This ultimate reality is pure being, pure consciousness, where everything has its source; an ocean of pure potentiality at the basis of all existence, it does not arise as a result of some particular arrangement or form, it is always present.   – In the stillness you will Know.

– notes taken from Awe-filled Wonder, by Barbara Fiand

3.

“At the center of our being is a point of nothingness
which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which
belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of
our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our
own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of
God in us. . . . It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of
heaven.” (Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander)

4.

The cat sits on the back of the sofa looking

out the window through the softly falling snow

at the last bit of gray light

I can’t say the sun was going down.

We haven’t seen the sun for two months

Who cares?

I am sitting in the blue chair listening to this stillness

The only sound: the occasional gurgle of tea

Coming out of the pot and into the cup

How can this be?

Such calm, such peace, such solitude

In this world of woe

-David Budbill  

     

5.

We are too often unhappy, while on and on

the world remains the gift of presence God

meant it to be at the beginning and sustains

in every moment and when we catch

even a glimpse of this, our restlessness

begins to open to a deeper stillness within us

where we will come to know that what is

now torn apart and broken will finally come

back to the stillness which rests in the deep

oneness of this life and in the breadth of Love

A deeper stillness –Meister Eckhart, as translated by Mark Burrows and Jon Sweeney

6.

To know the dark, Wendell Berry

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

Now, if you will, read this before turning off the light to be dark

2020

Winter solstice poem*

The shortest day and the longest night have arrived

We turn our attention to stillness

As we enter the darkness

willingly

As we slow down and turn inward

We rest in the belly of darkness

We are held in the womb of God

We resist no more

We force no more

We are anxious no more

We fear no more

We rest

We allow

We soften

We surrender

We stop

We stop the struggle

We stop the pushing

We stop the striving

We stop the future telling

We stop to see What Is 

And in doing so we surrender to the void

We arrive at the abyss

Where miracles are made

where mystery lives

Where connectivity reigns

Where creation begins

And we wait

We wait

We patiently wait….

Turn off the light now, and sit for 20 minutes in the darkness. After 20 minutes come back here to read the closing prayer

And in this quiet moment

We feel the peace in the darkness

We sense the potential in the abyss

We perceive the presence..

of light

We see its truth

We’re in awe of its beauty

We are lost in the wonder

We sense our own capacity for light

And we wait

For the light to rise

For the light to heal

For the light to guide our way

We turn our focus to hope

We turn our focus to faith

We turn our focus to Love

And in the light we see

And WE rise

To hope

To love

To create

A new year is here

The turning has already happened

May we trust

May we soften

May we Be the Light

Amen, and a little woman

– *compiled from an online source, Plentyconsulting.com