Monday Muse

Recently I have been living, re-reading, trying to let the words of the following poem sink deep into my soul.  I invite you to read this poem several times...

A Blessing for Traveling in the Dark  By Jan Richardson
Go slow
if you can.
Slower.
More slowly still.
Friendly dark
or fearsome,
this is no place
to break your neck
by rushing,
by running,
by crashing into
what you cannot see.

Then again,
it is true:
different darks
have different tasks,
and if you
have arrived here unawares,
if you have come
in peril
or in pain,
this might be no place
you should dawdle.

I do not know
what these shadows
ask of you,
what they might hold
that means you good
or ill.
It is not for me
to reckon
whether you should linger
or you should leave.

But this is what
I can ask for you:

That in the darkness
there be a blessing.
That in the shadows
there be a welcome.
That in the night
you be encompassed
by the Love that knows
your name.

What is your initial response/reaction to the poem/prayer/blessing?
Do you find yourself resisting or a sense of relief at the permission to slow down?
What kinds of darkness are around you...or as the ancient Christian mystics called, "The dark night of the soul"?  Perhaps the current COVID19 or trying to dismantle systemic racism or worry about our kids/grandkids going back to school or the political polarization or your health or relations?

Richardson is inviting us to see the vast and various ways darkness can enter our lives.  In some ways we are always living with one foot in the darkness and one in the light, it just depends on which way we are facing.

I join Richardson in offering a blessing to you this week.  A blessing to know whether this is a darkness you should linger or leave.  A blessing to know that not every night time is scary, sometimes it is sacred, holy darkness.  A blessing to embrace and be enfolded by truths that can only be experienced when the stars are twinkling overhead.

Go slow.
Go slower still
Into that good night.
That there may be more than a trace of God's grace.

Amen.