Rising? on Dark Wings

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light,
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
-Wendell Berry, To Know the Dark

When I moved from the Northeast woods to Utah, it took me a long time to learn that the desert, "too, blooms and sings." I had to stop comparing the desert to the woods, and let the desert be the desert. Then I could begin to appreciate the desert's own distinct beauty; this open space has become a refuge in which I can face and accept my own desert feelings.
Each day now grows darker, as December approaches. The season of Advent begins today, a journey through darkness toward light. Having recently returned from a family funeral in Vermont, I am in a place of bittersweet darkness . . .