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Biting cold air brushes across exposed cheekbones as the woman in snowshoes trudges up the bank of the snow entombed pond. The place she knows so well in other seasons is on lock-down, frozen beneath ice and snow. No taking the flat-bottomed boat out searching for turtles today! Instead, autumn’s remains, whitewashed now with beauteous light shine forth against dark shadows. Little sign of life is to be found here - a fresh trail of deer tracks ventures across the snow-covered pond, two old holes in the ice, snowed-in now, entrance and exit where an otter foraged beneath the ice for fish-dinner. All seems frozen in time and yet, a clear trickle of water coming out of the pond outflow reveals a distinctly different reality. The painted turtle now sleeps in the mud beneath frozen water. Poet, Emily Dickenson calls this time of the Great Cold the “hour of lead” (Christian Century, Jan 22, 2014), It is, at least for those of us trudging heavily clothed against the swirl of arctic blasts. How we SEE a thing makes all the difference! There are two ways of seeing our present experience of life i.e. “the hour of lead.” One is to have the perceived reality in extreme cold that all is lifeless, threatening, despairing, a time to slog through life bearing winter as a giant of a time akin to burden and survival. The other is to envision a reality taken from the winter landscape, one of letting up, dormancy, rest and restoring. A turtle dug-in the mud. Isaiah says that the people walking in darkness “ARE SEEING” a great light (Is 9:1-4). The yoke of burden, the weight on their shoulders IS SHATTERED. Notice the tense “are”, “is”. IN the midst of deep shadows a beauteous light SHINES. I needed this word a few days back because my perceived reality is grim, heavy, all- consuming. In winter wonderland with a l-o-n-g driveway, two parking lots, and numerous trails to clear, our thirteen year old walk-behind track snowblower is taking us through a season of “snowblower hell.” After fruitless repairs and relentless snows, my “I-can’t-do-this-anymore” comes gushing up breaking through a thick layer of frozen fortitude. My perceived reality in that time is that all is naught, winter and an old snowblower are taking this Great Work down. My spunk is leveled. With energies used up, spent, I let go my grip and collapse in despair. After his baptism, Jesus begins his ministry telling others, “Change your hearts and minds for the kin_dom of God is near.” (Mt 4:12-23) Change the way you see and feel, think and act “FOR” a light to shine in your darkness, our shadowed life. The commonwealth of God’s realm IS NEAR. Not will be near in some far-off Other space and time, but is right now. The shattering of my “I CAN”, the darkness of being spent is the very moment when I see a beauteous Light shine. Relief floods into an inner personal choice that is frozen, warming and thawing my perceived and faulty reality. An arena is provided for a new vision of reality guided by God’s promise. The reign of The Holy One IS near. Now, would be the time in which a host of inner voices want to argue the delicate balance in carrying out an envisioned reality for God. The balance between trusting God’s provision on one hand and on the other, being the provider and executor who needs a large dose of “gumption” to go forth. I won’t. Instead, I will stay with allowing this time with the thermometer plummeting to -12.1F (-27C) as I write, “snowblower hell” resolved, and a deep recognition that this time of dormancy is for our benefit. It is a just right time to let God’s Light warm any hardness frozen within. www.primaverapeace.org January 21, 2014 W I N D O W S : Soulful Glimpses into Primavera January 26 3rd Sun Epiphany Isaiah 9:1-4 Ps 27:1, 4-9 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Matthew 4:12-23 February 2 4th Sun Epiphany Micah 6:1-8 Ps 15 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 Matthew 5:1-12 ..”great light illumines only what is in darkness.” paul hooker (Christian Century January 26, 2014) Susan Morley HOW WE SEE
