gift
Longest night.
Darkness falls like snow,
falls and falls,
deepening.
Older than the universe,
here before it,
and will be after.
Wraps an arm around us
as if we’re old friends.
We are.
Darkness lives in us,
radiates from us.
We speak it.
Darkness is the velvet cloth
where you cherish the gem
of your presence among us,
darkness the womb,
darkness the manger
that cradles your light,
this holy being
that becomes us,
births us.
In the darkness
you do not come to us,
we come from you.
Because you are with and not apart,
even the darkness
is you.
Because you shine in it
the dark is our dark,
none of it unchanged.
Your being our light,
your hereness our life,
shining in the longest night.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
To go into the darkness with a light
is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark.
Go without light and find that the dark too, blooms and sings
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
– Wendell Berry
Black. out. black.
Black. on. black.
Dark. on dark. on dark.
I was simply looking for home.
Not knowing the current alley would lead
to where the sidewalk ended
I stepped off the edge
out of the world of light
waking into morning night
a banished sun
no stars
or moon
or streetlights
or fireflies
or lighters
in pitch darkness
I lay, unable to move,
senses adjusting
to what is my new reality
hearing the life
that lives here
wondering if I’ll make friends
while I’m here
learning this new space.
š
AL
Gift suggestions:
To your enemy – forgiveness.
To an opponent – tolerance.
To a friend – your heart.
To a customer – service.
To every child – a good example.
To all – love.
š
– Oren Arnold
life: acoustic & amplified 