Contrasts

The shortest day of the year turned out to be one of the brightest we have had this December. Frigid air and high winds rendered the sky cloudless...and with an inch or two of snow on the ground, the illumination was "extreme". Many people expressed their delight to see the sun at the same time they exclaimed their pain as they inhaled the knife blades of subzero air.

Contrasts fascinate me...they bring details into clear focus -- without contrasts, everything would be a visual, audible, and emotional "sameness". Sometimes I see something with new appreciation when it is placed next to its extreme opposite. Absence and Presence, Present and Past, Birth and Death, Joy and Sorrow, Sound and Stillness, Light and Dark, Action and Rest -- These are just of few of the contrasts that I notice, especially at this time of year.

There is a point where I can get caught up in a frenzied rhythm of these contrasts. When the pace of the "holiday schedule" heightens, I notice a sort of "crazy fatigue" -- The sensation gains momentum and threatens to become the primary condition of my being. I may find myself looking at the extremes, darting from one to the other. It is a type of sensory/spiritual/emotional overload. It's like being on a teeter totter that is moving with a force that threatens to catapult me into space!

But peace can be re-established! At the center of all these contrasts is a place where I rest in stillness...wholeness. I return to a secure balance point from which I can gently and appreciatively gaze at the contrasts, knowing that they are there to reveal the nuances of God's good gifts. I see people differently from that place. I am able to move through activities and relationships in a spirit of acceptance rather than judgement (that radically changes how I am in those family gatherings!) I experience the passage of time with an understanding that all things change...joy and sorrow, presence and absence, life and death. Everything flows...and all moments have purpose.

I pray, through God's grace, that I may appreciate more fully the contrasts I encounter.