NEW YEARS EVE

It seems particularly dark tonight. To me, this seems altogether fitting and proper for the last night of the year; it is as if the year has been fully spent. Light has recently become an ever present thought that I have carried with me throughout the past few weeks. But it is a deeper sense of light that has stayed with me - it is the light of friendships I've held in my heart - the light that carries us through difficult times and walks with us along our various paths. I just changed my profile statement for the first time since starting this blog to include the light of friendship as a force that accompanies me on my pilgrim path.

Very few of us have escaped 2008 unharmed in one form or another. Some of the pains have been economic, others spiritual, and still others emotional. During the just past holiday season, it became apparent to me more than ever that our connections to one another are what will hold us together in 2009 and beyond. Deep listening and deep care are the new currency of the day. They will see us through this difficult year ahead. Sometimes it takes a year like the one just past for us to realize that they have always been the only things that matter.

With gratitude for the lessons you have taught me, with joy for the laughter you have shared with me, I wish you, dear friends, the deep peace of the winter darkness with confidence that we share a common light within our hearts that will lead us to the eternal hope of a new day.

Fondly,

Rich

FEW WORDS

In the end, that is what this season is all about...

those unplanned, unexpected moments that sneak up on us

and remind us who we really are.

WINTER SUNSET

Light is the absence
Of darkness,
Darkness is the absence
Of light,
Via negativa
Opens our eyes
To see the bundle
Of colored pencils
God grasps each night
To color the sky
One last time
To fill our hearts
With awe
Before we begin
To illuminate
Our own dreams.

(poem prompted by photograph taken by
and used with kind permission of
Christine Valters Paintner
@ www.abbeyofthearts.com.
Join Christine's Poetry Party every other Monday!)

EARLY WINTER DREAMS

Moonlight streams through shutter slats
delivering seeds of dreams
harvested by nascent spirits
yearning to be free.

I yield to sleep atop warm blankets
heated by my lazy felines,
conspiring with the otherworld
to seduce me into slumber.

Where do these pictures rise up from
of far’way lands and strange events?
But still a part of who I am
although I may not think so.

Dark words and darker stories strike
when I can least deflect them.
Their echoes during waking hours
can put a heart to test.

Truth and dreams, in early hours
meet to sear into my heart
lessons my mind won’t recognize:
experienced and learned.