From Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael, Senior Co-Minister
In these times of pandemic exhaustion, when rest is necessary, we need the blessing of the dark. Also, as a community committed to anti-racism, we recognize the danger of equating light or white with good and dark or black with bad. To affirm the blessing of the dark is an act of justice, as well as a spiritual commitment to wholeness.
When I was a child fighting sleep, I would stare up into the deep darkness of my room. I treasured this time for it’s spaciousness. Whatever my imagination could conjure, would appear. The darkness allowed for total creativity.
Now, as an adult yearning for rest, darkness allows my mind to settle and slip into it’s subconscious. And in the evening, as the dark begins to appear, I am reminded that rest will come. The darkness of the early morning is also an invitation. In the first hour of waking I move slowly and allow myself a morning meditation. In these days of high anxiety the dark compels a different pace.
The dark has an abundance. It invites imagination and conjures rest. It also speaks of depths that the anxiety filled daylight can’t touch. May the dark tend you. May the dark teach you.