Deep Winter Affirmation Prayer

The year ends in darkness, with absence of light

Days shortened and shadow enshrouded

Long, still, ebony hours of night

Silent and dimly cold clouded

Yet, the voice of a dream affirms meaning in night

With purpose the darkness is rife

It whispers the chill, stark absence of light

Is a metaphor searching for life

In the deep cold of winter, in the length of the night

Nine candles glow bright from afar

The sun returns with brief bright Solstice light

Earth is lit by the hope of one star

Each soul, as the seasons, turns like a wheel

A sacred cycle each of us make

When things seem the darkest, the circles reveal

That the light may be ready to break

And so we believe that the darkness will end

That a warm wind will swallow the cold

That the world will be something we can comprehend

As the seasons expand and unfold

Once a heart understands the nature of change

It is free to wait for the dawn

To know warmth is not rare, affection not strange

In total darkness; the light is not gone

The heart speaks a promise the mind cannot break

That there is nothing that cannot be mended

Never a nightmare from which you can't wake

Nor a hurt that cannot be transcended

Darkness can be washed away by the light

Disillusion by laughter undone

Depression can be replaced by delight

Despair bleached to hope by the sun

Even bone-cracking winter ends with new birth

As the world is rekindled with green

There isn't a stain on the heart or the earth

That cannot be finally washed clean

Though our world is still threatened by darkness and pain

And we sometimes feel frightened and small

The light is still stronger, it's strength will remain

And love is the strongest of all

Edwina Peterson Cross ©December 2002