The boys and I celebrated the last night of Hanukkah with a disgusting meal ala Angelina...really it was remarkably bad. Bodhi had been feeling a little punky all day and after his second bite of beet greens and spinach he gagged. I said, "Spit it out. In fact everyone spit it out. This food is terrible." Unfortunately, Bodhi's belly was already lurching and he began a tremendous display of projectile vomiting where he stood. I was poised nearby, arms out stretched, legs spread wide in the stance of a referee on home base calling "SAFE". I carried him to the sink where he continued unabated and I spent the rest of the evening cleaning, bleaching, rocking, soothing and pampering. Ahh. A celebration of light in preperation for the longest night of the year. An appropriate event for such a night.
When everything looks bleak and the darkness cramps against the cold, it takes courage to simply look out from imagined isolation toward the wide horizon of beauty available in every moment. It takes courage to lean into the sea of life and trust the tide. When weary limbs no longer support us, it takes courage to trust our inner buoyancy and float. It takes courage, in the face of darkness, to remember the light and sit in all our apparent blindness and listen, silently, to the still, small whisper within. It takes courage, in that dark hour, when nothing else remains. Eyes closed. Eyes opened. A glimpse, a memory, a fleeting vision of a light so bright it blurs the borders of things seen and things perceived into a comprehensive wholeness of being. It takes courage.
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