This week, I come with an offering, a poem that's been touching me deeply in this season cycle and life transition. While it's about the Winter Solstice (and not explicitly this savory, chilly pumpkin spice season), it has been a sharp focus of my inner eye, knowing I'm about to enter a long winter. By the illustrious Ryan Van Lenning:
Sip the Season Darkly
Darkness has arrived wrapping its inky cloak across the season of our lives
long shadows and owls stand tall and salute autumn’s bright slow song becoming winter’s march
asking us not skip too quickly over the hour with an eager eye grasping towards cherry blossoms awaiting on the other side
Drink deeply from the season, they say, from the cup overflowing with the sweetness of the fruitful darkness
Sip the season darkly in its slow inward night embrace
Wisdom hidden from summer’s glare may yet pass our lips should we have the thirst for it
Until finally, the world becomes too much with us:
We go to the cave, the secret one in the mountain of ourselves seeking stillness, a retreat an inward looking
and listen for it, our own voice amidst
The Silence – can you hear it?
What I love most about this poem is how it stares directly in the face of darkness, and even more, it leaves space to listen to "our own voice amidst The Silence." I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit nervous to be moving into a Lithuanian winter, which is why I'm so readily bringing in all the light I can. We can all see it clearly from my most recent posts. But, the point of this poem is that the richness of the darkness, The Silence, actually has something for us. And, what is this? "Wisdom hidden from summer's glare," asking us not to wish for Spring's cherry blossoms too soon, something I'm really looking forward to here in Vilnius. But, the point still stands: there's magic to be had right now, even as we move into the dark. To quote Paula Cole: "I am like the Winter/ I'm a dark, cold female/ with a golden ring of wisdom in my cave."
So with that, I'll leave you to think about what this poem may mean to you. Sending love from (beautiful and chilly) Vilnius!
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