Lines for Winter

Winter Solstice.

Winter is not my favorite time of the year but there is something magical about this winter solstice day. This year, in particular, I need the magic. I put my hope in the magic. It’s early morning as I write this and there is a blustery rain outside. Many of the homes in the neighborhood sparkle with those festive holiday lights. Many lights will stay on throughout the day today, providing some illumination for this darkest, briefest blink of a day.

Like many people, I am disillusioned and angry with the state of the world right now. I can’t understand the greedy, intolerant, and selfish vision that appears to be enveloping our country and the rest of the world. But that’s where the magic comes in. Even though the world looks bleak tonight, there are still lights everywhere. There are lights of kindness and generosity, lights that show us how to be better people.

I have a favorite winter poem that hangs out on the fridge all year. Maybe take a minute to read this one aloud. It feels like a poem for this moment in history.

Lines for Winter
by Mark Strand

for Ros Krauss

Tell yourself
as it gets cold and gray falls from the air
that you will go on
walking, hearing
the same tune no matter where
you find yourself—
inside the dome of dark
or under the crackling white
of the moon’s gaze in a valley of snow.
Tonight as it gets cold
tell yourself
what you know which is nothing
but the tune your bones play
as you keep going. And you will be able
for once to lie down under the small fire
of winter stars.
And if it happens that you cannot
go on or turn back
and you find yourself
where you will be at the end,
tell yourself
in that final flowing of cold through your limbs
that you love what you are.

Doesn’t the poem give you chills? It suggests to me that we can (individually and as a country) survive this upcoming winter. We do not have to surrender. We don’t have to surrender to the cold of nature nor to the freeze of greed and intolerance.

Tell yourself
be the light.