Tuesday, December 18, 2012

I'm still here.

Hello All.
I had to step away from the Internet for a few days following Friday's hideous occurrence. I needed to spend time in the present, with my family and friends. As the days go by, the pain in my heart aches a little less--but I suspect that it will never be gone. The knowledge that what happened in Connecticut could have easily happened any where, to anyone's children, will always be stored away inside my brain.

When life hands me things that are too big, too raw, and too much I turn to poetry. I have been reciting Emily Dickinson over the past few days:

My life closed twice before its close --
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me

So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.



For me, it is so very appropriate that this Friday is the Winter Solstice. A time when the darkness gives way to the light. The days begin to lengthen ever so gradually, and we are pushed out of winter and pulled towards spring. 

One of my personal rituals is to check in with the Maes Howe web cam
Maes Howe is a prehistoric chambered cairn--a burial mound made of rough-hewn stone. The entrance is aligned with the setting sun on the Winter Solstice. As the sun makes it's descent on the shortest day, the room fills with light. 

I invite all of you to celebrate the returning of the light on Friday night. Light candles, sing songs, and fill your heart and homes with the people you love. 

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