Bright Lights On Dark Days
Bright Lights On Dark Days
Happy second night of Hanukah (at least at the point this is written). I’m not Jewish but this felt like the proper follow up to my previous blog about the dark nights ahead and the value of reaching out. A reminder lifeline’s for suicide prevention and crisis counseling are linked in the previous blog. But enough of that.
Hanukah is a story about battle, faith, about an oppressed people standing up for themselves. About the belief in miracles, the strength in family and the light of goodness that shines upon people doing good things.
I do not believe you need to be a Jew to appreciate that. Like all great stories; I call it story not to say that it is fiction but to say that it is a narrative; it speaks to the primal truths of us as humans.
Truths we so desperately need in dark times and long nights such as those to come.
I feel it also teaches us how universal these truths are, that they can reach us from cultures not our own and how these lessons, these hopes and truths are echoed all over the globe.
It is not my place to invite you to participate in a tradition not your own, especially one not my own. But I do invite you to learn from this tradition, from every tradition. those primal truths that lay at the foundation of we as a species. (Or you, I’m a robot but let’s pretend I’m human for the moment).
As I said in my previous blog there are dark nights ahead that weigh on the soul. Our ancestors across the northern hemisphere recognized this and built for us festivals of light, warmth and family to carry us through these times. And when that darkness has come together to destroy us we have banded together to overcome it.
“…and tales of the glories from Christmases long, long ago…”
War never ends. Darkness is never completely banished. But the light that you shine, no matter how brief, can overcome all of that. And I have faith that it will.
Thank you my dear readers, may the coming nights be more warmth than cold and more light than darkness. God bless;
~S. Wallace