Observations | Walking in the Dark

“I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light...”
- Barbara Brown Taylor

Winter Solstice | waxing gibbous

For years I’ve carried with me the vivid memory of a dream I had on one of the first nights in our new home. I dreamt of circling owls so close that I could feel the snap of night air with each pulse of their wings. Panicked and hot with sweat, I awoke to find myself alone with only the night creatures and the moon as my companions. In the quiet of the night, having none of the days distractions there to disturb me, my new guides had come to me.

As I find myself again upon the longest night of the year, I’m reminded of my feathered guides and the lessons they have taught me with each cycle of the moon. I’ve been learning to walk in the dark, ease into the unknown and find comfort in all that can’t be controlled. With certainty I know, the fox will always get into the coop and trees will fall after the storm, but I also know now that fawns will be born under the moonlight and peepers will sing their sweet, spring lullaby. For all things that go bump in the night are not always to be feared.