"May you befriend the darkness.
May Sister Night be a tender and fierce companion.
May Longing lie down with you:
may you trace the curve of Desire's face.
and sleep in Memory's embrace.
May the spirits attend your dreaming
till absence gives way to flesh
and the shadows return your touch."
~Jan L. Richardson

As the days of Advent begin to envelop us, here in the Northern Hemisphere darkness is becoming the clothes we wear. On Tuesday I realized I had gone to work in darkness and come home in darkness. The daylight hours are becoming shorter and shorter as we march toward December 21st and the Winter Solstice when the light will begin returning in slow increments. We began this journey in June, the days getter darker, but we are only feeling its depth in these December days.

And so we have the privilege, I believe, of actually living the days of Advent as if the light of the world was slowly eeking away. Intellectually we know this is only a cycle of something much bigger than our human knowing. But the daily living of this darkness can allow us, if we are open to it, to sink into that darkness as we wait with expectation for the Light of the World. It is not without great genius that we celebrate Christmas so close to the time when the sun begins its returning light. If we are aware, we can actually experience the gift of light, not only in the story of Christmas, but also in how we walk through our ordinary days noticing light and shadow,warmth and cold.

How do you allow the darkness to come into your life? How do you find  comfort and hope in it? How do you allow the absence of light to nurture the spark of Spirit that lives and glows within you, within all? Darkness holds seeds and infants, chicks inside eggs and the birth of stars. Darkness can also hold all that is waiting to be born in us. 

Today, I invite you to embrace the darkness and all that it holds forth. Soon its gifts will be bathed in light.