A WINTER SOLSTICE PAUSE

with three curated poems for your soul

Photo by Benjamin Voros on Unsplash

Hi, Friend:

Is today not Tuesday? No, no it is not. A day late, but here we are.

Like most folks I know, I do my fair share of whining about how dark it gets so early in the day. Where I live in Northern Colorado, it feels like 10 pm when it is only 4:30 in the afternoon. I go to bed when the clock still reads single digits. But there are gifts in the holy darkness, too. Gifts in embracing the rhythm of living more in tune with the natural world and this season. In slowing down. In going into the mystery of the quiet stillness where our souls can stretch out and simply be.

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, tomorrow marks the winter solstice. It is the day with the shortest amount of daylight of the year and it traditionally marks the celebration of the gradual return of the light from that day forward.

In my faith tradition, I celebrate Advent, which is the season of waiting for the coming of the Light of Christ into the world. Many other faith traditions practice lighting candles in this season as well. We all long for the comfort of the Light. But before there was light there was darkness and the darkness held and holds all.

May this time be for us a meaningful pause amid the clamor and congestion of the holiday season.

May it be for us a time to slow down and breathe in the quiet of unknowing and undoing.

May we know that darkness is not to be feared when it is infused with Great Love.

xo Mary

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One of my favorite living poets, David Whyte writes:

Darkness

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.
When your vision has gone,
no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.
There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.
The dark will be your home
tonight.
The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.
You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.

David Whyte

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A short poem from Wendell Berry, another favorite poet.

To Know the Dark

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.

Wendell Berry
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And lastly, this beautiful poem by John O’Donahue.

For a New Beginning

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

- John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

Blessing to you and through you this season, friend. Sending you love and joining you in the work of peacemaking.

xo Mary

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A portion of our paid subscriptions this month goes to: Rocky Mountain Refuge

Rocky Mountain Refuge is the only shelter in Colorado that offers round-the-clock custodial family-style care, where people experiencing homelessness are kept safe and comfortable and can receive hospice care from our partner agencies. People experiencing homelessness often don’t have adequate access to hospice care which most of our citizens take for granted. 

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I hope you’ll keep in touch and share a comment below. If you are more comfortable responding privately, simply reply to this email. Either way, I’ll get back to you. Thank you for reading.

© Copyright 2023 by Mary Thoma 

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