Finding the courage to name the dark shadows

Endings are also the time to own the shadows, the challenging situations we have faced during the year.

These dark places we had to walk through because there was no other way.

Those losses that took a part of us with them. They can’t be replaced, but they do need to be named.

This is all part of making peace.

And it too is a gift, if we will accept it.

John O’Donohue again captures this well and invites us to pause in this place, at this time.

The slow brooding times

When all was awkward

And the wave in the mind

Pierced every sore with salt.

The darkened days that stopped

The confidence of the dawn.

+ John O’Donohue, verses five and six from his blessing: At the end of the year