As a child, I could not sleep in total darkness. It didn’t feel restful for me; only chilling and lonely. But somehow, a single nightlight changed the entire scene. Its soft glow transformed the night into a beautiful vigil; the shadows of my room suddenly the perfect cradle for deep and dream-filled sleep. I remember snuggling into my bed, confident in the return of the morning light ... all because a tiny mote of it kept watch over me through the darkness.
In the Northern Hemisphere, we’re less than 3 weeks from the longest night of the year. And fast on its heels, the return of the blessed Light. In sacred pagan traditions, the Winter Solstice ushered in a celebration of hope, symbolized in mythologies the world over by the nativity of the god and/ or goddess. Yet it is only the beginning of astronomical Winter! Here in MN we’ve got at least 4 months’ worth of blizzarding ahead …
This tension serves as a reminder of how little light we actually need to pierce the darkness; to set our hearts ablaze. To rest in heavenly peace. In fact, with our conscious minds powered down, many of the ego battles we think we must fight simply dissolve into the ether. If we can bring ourselves to surrender to the delicious darkness (knowing our Light watches over us, always) we can recover pieces of ourselves we thought we had lost forever. We can make great strides in our healing and in our growth. In our creative process.
So let us sleep this Winter, for real. Let us rest, and choose activities that honor our body’s rhythms. Let us reprogram and recreate ourselves, absent our mental hangups and our academic concerns. Let us discover and honor our sacred darkness. Let us prepare ourselves to be reborn in the Spring. Let’s hibernate.