One True Thing

I am walking down a dirt road on a blustery December morning.  The sky is dark and heavy with clouds.  The road is dark from yesterday's rain.  The woods, too, are somber shades of gray and brown, fading into gloomy shadow off to my right.  The only color in the winter light are mounds of emerald moss and pale lichens clinging to the north road bank, rusty clumps of sedge grass and a few dull green cedars shaking their shaggy arms in the wind.

My footsteps make a steady rhythm against the earth, my mind floats hither and yon above.  I am all alone, and wondering.

Solstice is approaching, and right on its heels, Christmas and the new year.  Now, when days are short and shadows long, while nature rests, inner life blossoms.  This is the time for introspection - a solitary pursuit - hopefully to gain new perspectives and firmer resolve for the coming year.  But it is also a time of joining together; of gathering in groups large and small to celebrate, to spread cheer and fellowship.

Introspection is easy enough, though sometimes painful, but joining together in more than the physical sense seems nigh impossible.  I need not mention all that divides us; anyone with eyes can see.  How can peace and good will prevail?

Religion doesn't get us there.  Instead it creates smaller and smaller factions, each one claiming to be the only true path.

Science, too, has failed, for even the most learned scholars can't agree on their facts.  What we call truth often rests on shifting sand.

If not faith or wisdom, what is left that can join us?  Love comes to mind, though human love wears many colors and often proves false.  Pure love is something we aspire to; the head may grasp the idea, the heart may respond, but the will yet fails.

So we struggle onward, all alone together, separate but intertwined like twigs on the same tree, poking and scraping one another, railing at those who cross us, gloating when the enemy falls.

This is necessary, this strife, in order to learn and grow.  How fast we progress is up to us, but eventually the two largest branches of our family tree - science and religion, wisdom and faith and all their myriad crisscrossing twigs - must join, for without wisdom there can be no love, without love, no wisdom.

I carry these thoughts home with me and let them rest as I go about my day.  In the afternoon I walk again, this time on a path through the woods.  The sky is still gray, though several shades lighter, and the wind is buffered by the trees.

Suddenly the clouds part and a ray of sun streams through.  I walk into the light, watching damp leaves begin to glisten.  A feeling comes over me and I stop a moment, waiting for my thoughts to catch up.

Light is the purest thing I know.  Nothing can hide in its radiance.  Darkness bows before it, all dross is burned away.  Light sacrifices itself endlessly so that we might live.  Without it we perish.  Light illumines our thoughts and warms our heart, bringing head and heart together, healing division by its truth and purity.

Holy Light, Light of the world, born at the darkest time of year; scorned, rejected, misunderstood, yet waiting still.  Precious gift!  You confront us with humility and grace in the smallest of ways, waiting for us to be ready to receive you.  Crystals glitter on the sleeping earth, starlight falls through the cold winter skies, touching the white breath of animals as they step gingerly through frozen fields.  The lights of Christmas are a reminder, softening the harsh angles of life, softening hearts and mellowing thoughts so, even though the world still struggles and suffers, for a brief time we can feel the Light's power, bringing us together in peace and good will.