“There is a tendency for us to flee from the wild silence and the wild dark, to pack up our gods and hunker down behind city walls, to turn the gods into idols, to kowtow before them and approach their precincts only in the official robes of office. And when we are in the Temples, then who will hear the voice crying in the wilderness?”
(Chet Raymo, the soul of the night)
The long dark metrological winter is preparing to let go its grip and allow the earth below our feet to warm, slowly, gently, and with purpose; that purpose is renewal. The plants and the animals are ready to begin a cycle that we humans look out for with a smile, as it marks the promise of longer days and spring.
However I wonder if any of you are like myself and are a little sad that winter is leaving. I enjoy the dark nights because the stars and the moon appear for longer in the darkest skies above my cottage. I enjoy the cold because the logs can release their potential energy and warm me as I sit with a book, knees covered by a soft rug, by the fire. I welcome the time when the power goes out for hours due to heavy snow fall and there is a quiet on the hill that is only experienced when the lights go out. I am blessed to have a great appreciation for the dark and I don’t rush to flee from it.
The dark can be a fearful place for some, especially for those who have always kept a light on and don’t often walk outside at night. ‘The dark’ has become a metaphor for all that is not good in our lives, and we might speak and write of it as nasty and unwanted. For me the dark of the night and the dark within my mind are places of inspiration and reflection. Humans all experience times of darkness and sadness, we might think we are broken because of them. But sometimes if we are not in actual danger, we can slow down, reflect upon what is making us sad or scared. We might be able to feel a solid pathway beneath us that had been unseen. We could notice tiny
glimmers of light all around us that had gone unnoticed; or remember being warmed by a relationship that has been left untended leaving only the embers.
Darkness does not have to be bad, like winter it can give our minds time to rest.
That leads me nicely onto ‘Lent’; the 40 days before Holy Week. Traditionally sacrificial and without cake!! Lent need not be about giving things up, or looking for the light as if the dark is going to bite us. It can be used as a time of transition. An emergence into life in contrast; appreciated and hopeful because we no longer fear darkness as an unending event. We are an Easter people.

Revd Lesley-Ann Craddock
St Mary’s Episcopal Church