Holy Days This is a season of dark, unexpected, unknown, and beyond expectation. A season that stretches our faith and grows our longing, bleak with the loss of many, cold with the absence of loving presence. Blessed Mystery allow me to ask, with what do we fill our desolate nests and how do we find our delight? Some of us seek comfort in light that is promised in these holidays, but light alone can take our sight away. I have been told that Your joy can penetrate darkness in ways we can only imagine, and that is my prayer, for those bowed with grief; that those who have left us may know You, in the starlight of the void, in the immensity of joy that is Your gift. ** I seek ways to find You in the dance within the darkness. I seek ways to understand those cousins, life and death, to glimpse Your face outlined in every curve and line, in every breath. There is a reason that the diamonds we so prize cannot be made above the ground. There is a reason that the richness of our hearts cannot be nurtured with this tinsel and this shine. In these holy days I seek to understand that the golden light of love is forged within the crucible of earth. In this season that is holy, help me claim You as my Joy, bless my longing and employ it. Fill my stubborn heart that will not let You go, but insists on being certain You are present. You are boundless. In these holy days of darkness let me name You as my Joy.
© Linda Beatrice Brown