“Sometimes it takes darkness …”

Some animals hibernate in the winter. Rodents, bears, bats, wasps, snakes, and fish go into hiding, lower their body temperature and heart rate. I’ve been in relative seclusion since late December. No, not depressed or confused, but enjoying isolation and equanimity. Letters and emails have remained unanswered and friends have expressed concern and displeasure. Time soon to explain and apologize.

I continue to volunteer, teach, and socialize for breakfast a few times per week — and rush home to the lair I share with Waldi the Dachshund. Along the way and to my utter surprise, I’ve entered into what in the past could easily have turned into a romantic relationship with its excitement and turmoil, but is quietly evolving into a gentle awakening to being loved. 

In gratitude, I offer this poem by David Whyte. May it speak to your heart’s deep longing..

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone,
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your home
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.

“Sweet darkness” read by the poet. In print: Whyte, David. (1997). The house of belonging. Langley, WA: Many Rivers Company. www.davidwhyte.com