Small Lights in the Darkness

As the final weeks of 2017 tumble to a conclusion, the dark of night descends earlier with each passing day. Driving home in the early evening it is so dark it feels like midnight. Turning onto my little street, I notice with great appreciation twinkling holiday lights decorating the trees and eaves of many of my neighbors’ homes. Red, yellow, green, blue, white. Lots of white; approximating the perfect snowfall in lights, a snow we rarely get in Southern California, which hang sparkling like tiny beacons of hope in the almost complete darkness.

This year’s Winter Solstice takes place on December 21^st. Traditionally, the Winter Solstice is a time to celebrate the shortest day/longest night of the year and to mark the beginning (or middle, in some cultures) of winter. It is a both a blessing and a mysterious gift of Mother Nature that the longest night of the year occurs just as we are moving into winter. This is the time when our energies go underground, inducing an increased desire to eat and sleep; the time of yin. And yet, the mystery is that even as we move into this darker time of hibernation, retreat, and dead of winter, we have already passed the darkest hour, already rounded the bend into emerging light.

Rituals celebrating the Winter Solstice are centered around rebirth, renewal. They commemorate the return of longer days and shorter nights, the hope of spring, and new life. Rebirth is not possible without an ending, or “death” of some kind. And so, Winter Solstice rituals may also include scheduling time for personal reflection, time to re-evaluate who we are, how we live, to question: what is my purpose? Am I living according to my values, goals, and priorities?  What shall I let go of that’s not working? What specific intentions shall I set that are more clearly aligned with my new-purposed goals for the New Year? What does my soul want to grow towards at this time?

The Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue writes,

“The soul was never meant to be seen completely. It is more at home in a light that is hospitable to shadow.” (Anam Cara)

Against the darkest dark, even a tiny light shines with surprising visibility. Stands out. Cheers us. Warms our hearts. It beckons us towards it with an innate pull and primal, soulful urgency. We are drawn to enter its radiant sphere, compelled to embrace its energy, and if we allow ourselves to be welcomed into it, to become one with it.

Darkness is a necessary contrast against which we more fully appreciate light. Without darkness, we wouldn’t understand how deeply our natures crave connecting to light or how puissantly we yearn for it when it is not present. It is within the penumbra of darkness that our souls’ purposes are revealed in small but insistent bursts of need.

Like when people are irresistibly drawn to volunteer their time and resources to provide food, clothing, shelter for victims of fire, flood, and adversity.

Or when a woman stands up against her abuser and speaks out: first one voice, then another, and another, and another until thousands like her are no longer content to remain silent.

Or, when the previously oppressed and disenfranchised stand up to say “No Moore” to empowering officials who lie and prey upon the young and naïve with impunity.

When we see these lights, big and small shining despite an overwhelming darkness that has itself become the new “normal” – we feel the urgency of soul speaking out for hope and courageously taking a stand for change. We are encouraged to consider how we too may be compelled to stand up, speak out, stand firm for values that come from deep within – inspired to reveal our own unique soul light for a truth that is at once both deeply personal and universally humane.

Happy Solstice.

May your soul light a beacon for hope in the darkness.