Edge of Darkness

You know / so very well / the edge / of darkness / you have / always / carried with you,” ….

But your edge/ of darkness / has always /made / its own definition / secretly / as an edge of light

and the door / you closed /might, / by its very nature / be / one just waiting / to be leant against / and opened….

          David Whyte

_____________________________

The moon moved slowly

Inexorably

Slowly eradicating the light

Making all dark

The light was never gone

It was there, just on the other side of the darkness

Ready to return in its own time

And all we had to do was wait

For the light to return

There are of course

Many kinds of darkness

The darkness that comes from without

The darkness that we carry within

We are perhaps always on the edge of darkness

Threatening to fall in

To that black abyss

Of fear

Or hate

Or hopelessness

Terrorized by life

And impending loss, and death

we step into the darkness

and close the door

cowering in the dark

as the disciples cowered

in the upper room

in fear

in fear of what?

Them?  Those people?  Out there?

Or in fear of their frailty and failure

Their own limitations

How often do we too linger in the dark

On the edge of darkness

Which perhaps

Is also the edge of light

striking out blindly

violently

at the monsters in the dark

that we cannot see

that may not be there

that may not be monsters?

What if that door we dread to open

Is the door that leads us into the light

Where life and love await

Where hope dwells

Where God’s new thing can happen?