Welcoming the Light

We have spent twelve months in a Covid world. The emotions that accompany this milestone are many. We have also adjusted our clocks. We’ve exchanged an hour of sleep for more light. I realize that this year unlike others years I am so thirsty for light that I want to gulp it down as if it were icy water gushing from a hose on a hot summer day.

C.S. Lewis wrote that people need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed. So today I am reminding myself and maybe you too that things are changing. The light is a reminder of what we already know but easily forget: darkness does give way to light, eventually. I wrote this poem for the Thanksgiving service in 2019. It was an attempt to acknowledge the struggles we face and recognize that with time the edges of hardship soften. May we sit in the quiet, welcome the light, and let it remind us of what we may have forgotten.

I SIT IN THE QUIET

C. Shaw

I sit in the quiet

of the morning,
on my chair,
in stillness.

The sun rises
As it always does

The birds sing
As they always do

The earth spins
As it always will

And joy holds hands with sorrow
And hello embraces good-bye
And today becomes tomorrow

In this stillness

Loss is kissed by sweetness
Change ushers in the new

Regret bleeds into gratefulness
Grief dons a gentle glow

Wholeness is created
From pieces
Beauty is made from ash

In stillness
On my chair,

I sit in the quiet