THE LIGHTS

They're about to come down, much as I hate to do it. I've been silently thanking each house I pass in the wee hours of the morning or after dark, for keeping their lights aglow; I've done the same. But our electric bill was actually a whole $20 larger this month, so reason must win over my desire to buck it.

But it's okay. The Light, the True Light that gives light to everyone came into the world and stayed here. How appropriate that Advent and Christmas once again led us deeper and deeper into darkness, only to be shattered by the Light. There is something so comforting to me in the repetitiveness of things. I think it's one way that "whatever our lot, God continually teaches us to say, it is well, it is well with our souls."

And we have certainly gotten to experience the light this year like no other in recent memory, what with all the abundant sunshine. Yesterday I was forced to throw caution to the wind and pedal like the speedster I really am (only on a bike, mind you). I'll pay for it today, but it was worth it.

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes, 

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, 

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting  

over and over announcing your place 

in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver