To be nobody-but-yourself
— in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else —
means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e.e. cummings, A Poet’s Advice
photo rennett stowe
The end of 2015 sees dark rivers bursting their banks, and high winds blowing all before them. Everything in movement. We see what to hold onto and what to let go of.
Every year
everything I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
is salvation, whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go
Mary Oliver, Black Water Woods
photo of the River Barrow at Bagenalstown, December 30th.
The flower doesn’t dream of the bee
It blossoms and the bee comes
Mark Nepo
photo incidencematrix
The winter solstice. The shortest, darkest, day can still be full of things to look forward to:
...this is the slowed down season, held fast by darkness
and if no one comes to keep you company
then keep watch over your own solitude.
In that stillness, you will learn
with your whole body
the significance of cold
and the night,
which is otherwise always eluding you.
Patricia Fargnoli, Winter Grace
photo slava
In the Islamic tradition, during Ramadam, there is a special night called the Night of Power, when angels are said to descend to earth, bringing peace. It is not known which night it is exactly, so the only attitude to have is one of waiting and watching. This is true for Advent also, but it even applies not just to special seasons but to the mystery in every moment:
God,
just like the Night of Power,
is hidden amidst the other nights
So that the soul
will go on seeking every night.
Oh young one,
not every night is the Night of Power
And yet,
not every night
is bereft of the Night of Power
Rumi
photo CC-BY
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