The December solstice marks the longest night and shortest day of the year. While many are busy with gift-giving, holiday decorating, travel, and parties, Winter's Cloak by Joyce Rupp offers these dark winter days as a time of meditation and reflection. This poem was read by Kathleen Curry during Unity's December 10 service.
Winter's Cloak
This year I do not want
the dark to leave me.
I need its wrap
of silent stillness,
its cloak
of long lasting embrace.
Too much light
has pulled me away
from the chamber
of gestation.
Let the dawns
come late,
let the sunsets
arrive early,
let the evenings
extend themselves
while I lean into
the abyss of my being.
Let me lie in the cave
of my soul,
for too much light
blinds me,
steals the source
of revelation.
Let me seek solace
in the empty places
of winter’s passage,
those vast dark nights
that never fail to shelter me.