BALANCING DARK AND LIGHT

Last night, I was exchanging thoughts with a friend on Facebook. Put it down to my cold, but I had slid into a place of discouragement and cynicism after reading about the demonstrations at Elsipogtog and the violent reaction from the RCMP.

Then my friend responded: "I am refusing to feed the wolf that supports the dark side." And I was called back to myself, cold and all. For neither do I, although I'd been edging along the verge of doing so. Maybe even dipping my toes in. Oops. Then this morning, another friend commented that she needed a prayer because all the politics was scaring her, and I realized how careful we need to be with our choices. I do want people to know the state of things AND it's essential to balance the info I post with large dollops of LIGHT, JOY, BEAUTY, and GRATITUDE. There's all too much of the dark if we look that way - and look we must, so we know where to aim our light-bearing.But ever and always, it's so important to nourish ourselves with that life-sustaining GOODNESS that's also out there awaiting our witness. So for her prayer I share one from my book, "In A Time Of Change; Poems for the Lost and The Found, The Hungry and the Hopeful".

photo credit: Shirley Halnan                

                               HOPE                                                           

     I move slow and soft across the landscape -     

     like fog drifting down the mountainside or

     the incoming tide creeping over the sand, my motions

     of heal and repair in the world would not show

     from outer space, nor even from the other side

     of the mountain. But here’s what I draw from the wisdom

     of the rocks here – marble and limestone, granite

     and mica:  we each have our strength

     and our weakness, which when reversed - like night 

     and day -  reveal hidden courage, gutsy and

     whimsical. Seven songs of healing rest on the shoulder

     of any unexpected change – that is the gift waiting

     to be opened. And five feathers of sorrow linger in

     the hand of the presenter – there is the weight

     and counter-balance longed for by the heart. If

     we lift ourselves to soar with the thermals, we can

     learn to live with the earth, leaving behind our determined

     survival-in-spite-of. Then as the songs pour from 

     the east, we can slide into the open, overtaking

     and overturning the three thieves of love. At that moment

     of victory will our hearts leap into the joy - 

     dancing, spinning, forming and unforming

     joining and dissolving into 

     the circle of the One.

                            © Gyllian Davies