Winter: Between the Darkness and the Light

From ancient times, the winter season has been seen as part of balance of nature...a time where the balance point changes between the darkness and the light. With the shortening of the day and daylight, comes an increase in the lengthening of the night and darkness. It is a natural time for letting go of all that which seems dark within one's life, and a time for making choices to bring in the light. Throughout history, in all of the world's cultures, through belief systems, festivals, traditions and practices, the changes in the cycles of birth, death and rebirth have been intrinsically and symbolically honored. From this honoring comes our holidays...our 'holy days.'

When we walk between the veils of one season and the next or one change or one emotion and the next, or even one 'holy day' and the next, we find ourselves always balancing our emotions...balancing the dark emotions, the very ones which create power and change, or the light emotions, the ones which bring in joy and abundance. One of hardest of the darker emotions is that of sorrow, grief and loss. Today, I am recognizing and honoring the gift that the darkness brings in as I honor the sadness of many as they face or as they remember loss.

I live in Oregon and today all Oregonians feel a huge and strangely personal, loss at the sad outcome for the search for James Kim. After the incredible survival of his wife and two young daughters, we were all praying for a continuation of that Christmas miracle. For all of who followed the Kim family's story, it became more than just one family's loss..it became the symbol for all of us about being lost, facing those emotions and feeling the sadness, the yearning, and the grief that such loss brings into our lives. Such is the sadness, the loss and the acceptance of the dark into our lives that each of us is asked to face at different times. Knowing that the dark will eventually find its way back into the light again is also know