We have just passed the longest night of the year. And this morning I woke before dawn and watched as the light began to illuminate the clouds. With every moment, the sunrise became more beautiful, and by the time I left for my Saturday morning hike, the sky looked very much like this photograph.
(I grumbled for a moment after running inside to find my camera and coming up empty handed. But I quickly decided I was meant to enjoy the coming of the light without distractions).
Last night, after I put Ella to bed, I was thinking about the Solstice and this dark time of year. With all the attention on Christmas and Chanukah and New Year’s Eve, the significance of the Solstice can easily be overlooked and forgotten.
It often feels as if we have pushed darkness from our lives. Even the darkest nights are filled with the glow of digital clocks and night lights. And when we wake in the dark of the morning, the first thing we do is turn on the light.
This pushing away of the external darkness reflects a similar pushing away of the inner darkness. But it is within that darkness that we find our greatest gifts. Jung said that our “gold” waits within the shadow. In order to find and claim those gifts we must be willing to enter the shadow.
So to honor this time of year I thought I would share two of my favorite poems about darkness: Poems that remind us of the power and beauty contained in the dark.
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light,
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
Wendell Berry
Have you ever noticed a sense of relief and excitement during a power failure? Have you ever let yourself settle into that deep darkness that descends when the flashlights are turned off and the last candle is blown out?
I think our bodies crave that deep natural darkness: The kind of darkness you get on a cloudy, moonless night in the mountains. The kind of darkness you get sleeping in the deep forest. The kind of darkness you get when the power goes out.
The kind of sweet darkness that most of us no longer experience.
Sweet Darkness:
When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.
When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.
There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.
The dark will be your womb
tonight.
The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.
You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.
~ David Whyte ~
So while we are in this dark time of year, and even as we now move towards the time of light, can you go into the dark? Can you turn off the flashlights, blow out the candles and step into the darkness without light? There is treasure in that darkness. There are gifts that you will not find in the light. But when you find them, you can bring them into the light, and share them.
Photo Credit: Before Sunrise by Algo.
译文:
重读黑夜
我们刚刚度过了一年中最漫长的一夜。今天早晨黎明前夕，当霞光为云朵向上金边儿，我起床观望。每一时刻，太阳都会变得更灿烂。到我外出去做我的星期天早晨远足时，天空看起来很像这张照片。
（我跑进我的房间里去找照相机，然而却空着手出来。我抱怨了一会儿，但很快，我就决定要聚精会神的享受这快要冲出云层的阳光）。
.
昨晚，在哄埃拉入睡之后，我想到了冬至和每年的这一黑暗时期。因为人们所有的注意力都放在圣诞节、光明节和除夕上，因此冬至的重要性很容易就被忽视和遗忘了。
很多时候，我们觉得黑夜已从我们的生活中逐出，即使连最黑的夜都点缀着明亮的电子时钟和夜灯。我们如果在凌晨醒来，我们所作的第一件事便是把灯打开。
这种排斥客观黑暗的心理其实反应了与之相似的排斥内心黑暗的心理。但正是那种黑暗让我们找到了最大的礼物。荣格说过：“我们的‘金子’在阴影里等着我们。为了找到并得到这些金子，我们必须心甘情愿地走入黑暗。
为了纪念一年的这一时刻，我愿意把我最喜欢的两首关于黑暗的诗来和大家分享。它们提醒我们，黑夜中所蕴含的力量和美丽。
带着一盏灯走进黑夜是为了了解光明，
想要了解黑夜，走入黑夜，闭上眼睛走近它，
然后发现，黑夜同样繁华，歌声阵阵，
借着黑夜的脚丫，披上黑夜的翅膀，周游世界。
温贝里
你可曾注意到停电时的一丝放松和兴奋？当关上手电筒、最后一根蜡烛吹熄的时候，你可曾让自己在这降临的黑暗中安顿下来?
我认为我们的身体渴望那浓郁的自然的黑暗：那种置身于山中、乌云密布、空中无月的黑夜的黑暗；那种睡在深山林中的黑暗；那种停电时所带来的黑暗。
这种甜蜜的黑暗是我们绝大多数人没有享受过的。
《甜蜜的黑暗》：
当你的眼睛疲倦的时候
这个世界也疲倦了。
当你的视觉消失的时候
世界的每一个角落都找不到你
是时候进入黑夜了
在黑暗中，黑夜的眼睛认出了自己的眼睛
在黑夜中你可以确信
你不是徘徊在爱之外
黑夜将成为你身体中重要的一部分
黑夜将会带给你前所未有的广阔的视野。
你必须了解到一件事情：
世界是可以自由进入的。
放弃所有别的世界
除了你所属于的那个世界
有时，它需要黑夜和你的孤独的甜蜜禁闭来了解
任何不能给予你生命的人或物
对你而言都太渺小了。
~大卫怀特~
因此，当冬至的黑夜到来时，甚至当我们该点灯照明的时候，你能否沉浸于黑夜之中？你能否关上电筒、吹熄蜡烛，然后步入没有一丝光亮的黑夜之中？黑暗中蕴含着宝藏，蕴含着我们无法在白天所得到的礼物。但是当你得到这些宝藏和礼物的时候，你可以把它们光亮中并且分享他们。
图片来源：廖果的《日出之前》