I am late getting out for my walk with Harper, and darkness is closing down on us. I watch the light come on at the farm that is a mile away.
The wind is fierce, and the air is damp, but I find the darkness strangely comforting. I love seeing the lights come on in each house as we walk by. I feel contained by the space of our flashlight beam, just a few steps in front of us.
Off in the distance, the Great Horned Owl is calling into the growing darkness. This is unusual. I can’t remember ever hearing this owl at dusk. It lives on our property, and it is usually my comforting presence at four o’clock in the morning, when I have awoken and cannot get back to sleep.
Tonight the owl is calling me to greater presence, and I am very aware of standing on the threshold of light into darkness. It feels like the owl is marking this transition for me.
I’m wondering what wisdom there is here, tonight, for me, in this threshold of light into darkness. Thresholds are luminous places where the quality of space and the rhythm of time are shifting.
Times of light, for me, tend to be filled with vitality and activity. I am often moving from one thing to the next, in a dance of commitment and achievement.
As the darkness comes on, it narrows my focus, slows my tempo down, and brings me inward, into a reflective space. I literally can’t see as much as I can in the light. The darkness brings me into a time of incubation and stillness, before the activity of the day begins again tomorrow. Benedictine monks see darkness as The Great Silence.
The threshold between light an darkness is a pause, and it is a generous breathing space for me.
On this threshold, I am invited to let go of the staccato tempo of the day. It has been a busy day, with bursts of activity, followed by brief pauses, in an abrupt, disjointed dance of getting things done.
I am welcoming this cover of darkness tonight. It wraps itself around Harper and me. Like a comfortable blanket, it makes me feel warm and held in a welcome space of renewal.
What is it like for you, on the threshold of light into darkness?
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