Embracing the darkness

 Daily Advent Reflections may be found here

1 Peter 3:15

Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you;

In this season I sense the nudge

to move from optimism to hope

For optimism encourages me 

to reframe the darkness

While hope exhorts me 

to embrace it

After almost two years

for the most part reframing

This Advent brings opportunity 

to stop and embrace

To sit with the darkness

until I can resist the urge

to flee or attack 

To sit with the darkness

until stillness settles in

To sit with the darkness

until I can acknowledge

the parts of self I’d rather stay hidden

To sit with the darkness

until I can show some love for the wounds

that make me all that I am

To sit with the darkness

until I can pick off the scabs

knowing that more healing is possible 

To sit with the darkness

not anxious about finding light

but to sit with darkness

until hope dawns.