Dark Days, Long Nights

Fifty one years ago I prepped for a wedding, mine/ours. It was cold. I was an impoverished seminary student. My parents were wending their way from Connecticut to be a part of our festivities. Ann was a far south suburban girl so her folks were right handy. The ladies planned the special day with nearness of Christmas. Our date was December 21^st. I remember it well.


I found a barbershop near campus in Hyde Park. Told the shearer that my wedding day was near so ‘don’t make me look like a chopped chicken.’ He did well. I was neat and trim, not shaggy or skinned.


I packed my bag for the honeymoon and made certain the car was washed and fueled. I joined my folks at their hotel near the wedding site. And then the festivities began. First the rehearsal and then the dinner. And then the big event, reception and fond farewells as we left for our scoot to Connecticut for Christmas and a reunion with other family who couldn’t make it to the wedding.


The days were short and nights long. The winter solstice was December 21^st. The longest night of the year. That accompanies the shortest day and in winter, the sun is far away and usually cloud covered.

So, it is today. Now 51 years later, we plan Blue Christmas church services to remember our losses and plan it for December 21^st. All these decades later, we live differently yet the same. Our marriage of yore has been over for 25 years, now. Other marriages for both have occurred. An expanded family in ways unthought of back then.


The days are short and the nights long. The seasons have come and gone and will yet again. The pattern of days. The pattern of years echoing the tempo of life. The good side is dark is replaced by light. On December 22^nd the days begin to lengthen, and the nights shorten. Until summer solstice when the ebb and flow switches direction once again.


Dark is not dreary. Light is not always happy. The mood implants itself on whatever hour. It is up to us to make of it what we can. Happy or sad; hopeful or lost; the days will mirror our resolve to do the best we can with the opportunity we see and make.


Generation after generation we march forward into the unknown with whatever we have to make whatever will be.


And light shall replace the dark. And dark shall provide respite for the next light.


December 4, 2019