Joy takes on the color of its surroundings. Today is the shortest day of the year because, as the ancients had it, the Sun is dying. That is the color of Joy today. Don’t stop reading. Joy can, indeed, be colored by darkness. Think about how wonderful it feels to be safe, warm and secure in your bed at night with all the lights out knowing that you now have hours of life restoring sleep ahead of you. Isn’t there just visceral joy in that moment? Such is the darkness that surrounds us today. The Sun is not dying, but our part of the Earth is resting in a kind of Winter sleep that allows Her to awake in Spring to the work of new life. In honor of this kind of joy, in the dark, in rest, in healing from the past, in strengthening for the future, I offer these words:
I arise today through a mighty and unexpected strength:
the power of the darkness that surrounds me.
Power of shadows
Power of quiet
Power of stillness
Be in me and around me this day and night.
Covered sky yields little light.
Quiet earth in winter’s night,
Churning sea holds the pow’r of Three.
So now I walk in solitude.
Let darkness be my mantle.
Let silence be my wisdom.
Let stillness be my practice
The rhythm of my heart-beat
The movement of blood-flow
The fire of body heat
Sing into harmony with the pulse of the cosmos.
I arise today through a mighty and unexpected strength:
the power of the darkness that surrounds me.
All hail to the dark sky. All hail to the still earth. All hail to the deep cold sea.
All hail to the Three in me.
Bob Patrick
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