I remember fondly as a high school athlete coming home late at night from a road game to run home on snow squeaking in the sub-zero cold. The cold dark night seemed alive with promise. I remember my uncle once saying how important it is for the land to freeze deep into the earth to improve its tilth. So right now it is a good thing that the land is resting. The beans and corn have been harvested.
Darkness covers the land, and silence reigns.
The land will rest now, breathing in stillness and non-productivity like food in a frigid storage locker. Like the farmer's land, in the darkness we, too, can rest in order to prepare for new beginnings. Darkness may even be a condition for new birth and beginnings. Next week we will baptize a new baby in the George family. Imagine his beginnings.