Turning

The Winter Solstice has passed and the days ahead will gradually gain minutes of daylight.  The longest night of the year has come and gone, once more.  The solstice occurs in the same week as Christmas Day, celebrated by Christians as the birth of Jesus, the Christ Light coming into the world and in the same month as Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights.  These celebrations with friends and family remind us of the Light in the midst of the darkness.

We’ve been on this journey around the sun before, just as many have celebrated the Light many times.  Each year of turning towards the Light gives us an opportunity to renew our hope and faith in the possibilities this Light and this Love brings.

Of course, darkness has not been banished from our days and lives.  With the grey days of January and February ahead, we know there will be long stretches of cold and darkness when it seems that Spring will never come.  In those dark times, we wonder where that Light is.  Where is the assurance of God’s Love?

As I sit with people in Spiritual Direction, hearing of the anguish of feeling directionless, listening as they wonder where God is in this, feeling the darkness, the invitation comes to sit and wait, knowing that God is a loving God, even in the darkness of the uncertainty.  Each time, God’s call is to wait patiently in the darkness with hope and faith.

What can sustain you in times of darkness?  Seek out a way to sit with God, even when it seems unrewarded.  Sit in silence.  Take a walk.  Find a community. Build relationships that can strengthen you when the darkness seems unending.

We know the return of the Light happens, even when we can’t see or feel it.  In dark, lonely times, it becomes important to be in a community who knows this truth, a community that can encourage and inspire, even in the darkness.  Join us in one of the many Eremos events that hold this Light, even in the Darkness.  We will come together in January to Chant with Rev. Mona West, to lift our voices and spirits.  Will you join us as we turn to the light?