As we approach the winter solstice I watch with increasing unease as the days get shorter and the nights longer. My morning walk to get the newspaper and my evening hike with my dog now take place in total darkness. I watch with dread as even the Bradford Pear tree loses its leaves, as it does the week after Thanksgiving, the last of my trees to do so. The new church year begins in darkness with the trees bare and the wind tossing leaves and even branches around the house with abandon. This is an important time of the year, when the world seems to draw a deep breath and settle down for a long winter's nap.
Sleep turns out to be very important.
The paper had an article this past week about how important it is to sleep the night after learning something new and difficult. It's as if your brain cells work while you sleep to imprint and make permanent the new pathways opened up during the day. The darkness we are beginning to experience as winter tightens its grip on the world may offer similar opportunity for deep reflection and growth. Darkness, for too long, has gotten a bum rap. We want to live in the light.