decembrance #19

So much of my decembrance project is based on making friends with the dark. My heart thaws as I write and pay attention to the darkness of the season. This week I have been walking at sunrise and sunset. There is a balance in these strolls. In the morning I admire the first light on the trees in my neighbor’s field. Again at sunset my focus lingers on the orange light on the other side of the same trees. As the shank of the afternoon settles I rest in the uncertainty of the season. I plan to put out my garden mystery squash along the fence line for the night critters to encounter a bit of unexpected bounty.

So I am teaching myself to rest in uncertainties, to revel in the secrets of darkness. I welcome the hungry creatures, cold and wild, that find their way in the dark to this unexpected bounty, but I don’t need to know who they are. Let them live out their lives in mystery. Let the cold nights hold them. Let the cold nights hold me, too.

—Margaret Renkl, Falling a Little Bit in Love with the Dark, New York Times, 12/19/2022