The Harried Mystic

Back during the Summer months of 2009, we had purchased a number of those solar cell powered garden lights that automatically turn on at sunset. The light energy of the day charges them and then the bulbs are triggered at dusk to last through about 40% of the night-time hours.

In the recent heavy snow, quite a few of these lights are now completely covered by snow. In a few cases, the heads are partly exposed and they are very dimly illuminated at night. One of them was damaged and the lamp portion was severed from the stem.

I was struck by the image of the pale bluish lights that  still “struggle” to glow in spite of the less direct, weaker sunlight that they are receiving now. The image of the severed unit and the burried lights actually triggered sadness.

As I explored these feelings, I became aware that my melancholy was rooted in the realization that this one light would no longer be a part of the otherwise very pleasant glow that the lights make in unison across the front yard. The buried ones in fact engendered a strong sense of longing for Springtime and the summer nights of illuminated bushes and flowers.

Even the once pure white snow is now unattractive, marked and discolored by dirt and footsteps, debris of one sort or another. The moment is an arresting parable articulated by nature to anyone who takes the time to look.

I am invited to be more alert to a continuous move toward entropy surely to be followed by renewal. In a matter of weeks, this will all be a memory. But, for now, it is a stark reminder that death contains the seeds of life and life the growing shadow of death.

The covered lights call on me to keep the vigil, and to watch for the gathering inevitable debris within that obscures the inner Light and threatens to extinguish the lamp of love’s constancy.

© Brother Anton and The Harried Mystic, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.