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The Dark Night (XVIII)

The Dark Night (XVIII)

By May Sinclair - 1863-1946

 

Our love is woven

Of a thousand strands—

The cool fragrance of the first lilac

At morning,

The first dew on the grass,

The smell of wild mint in the wood,

The pungent and earthy smell of ground ivy crushed under our feet;

Songs of birds, songs of great poets;

The leaping of the red squirrel in the tree,

The running of the river,

The commotion of stars and clouds in the high winds at night;

And dark stillness.

It is adorned with all the flowers

That stand in our garden;

It holds the night and the day.

 

Our love is made

Of the South Wind and the West Wind,

And the soft falling of rain;

Of white April evenings;

It is made of trees,

And of the many-coloured fields on the hills;

Of horizons,

Dark sea-blue of the west, thin sky-blue of the east,

With a yellow road between.

The flames of sunset and sunrise

Mingle in the fire of our love.

 

May Sinclair, born Mary Amelia St. Clair on August 24, 1863, in Rock Ferry, Cheshire, England, was a novelist, short story writer, poet, critic, and suffragist. She was the author of many books, including The Combined Maze (Harper and Brothers, 1913), The Life and Death of Harriett Frean (The Macmillan Company, 1922), and Uncanny Stories (The Macmillan Company, 1923), a collection of ghost stories. She died on November 14, 1946.

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Fresh Starts

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.

—Philippians 3:13

 

Spring is a season of new beginnings. The trees are budding, the snow is melting, and the birds are returning from their winter migration. It’s a beautiful time of year. It’s a fresh start for the world around us, and it can be a fresh start for us as well.

 

My recent move to a new apartment feels like a fresh start. I am in a new town and a bit further from work. There are new opportunities and new people to meet. I think anyone who has moved has purged their belongings of things they no longer need or want. I am getting rid of many old clothes that I can no longer wear after my weight loss. You may also get a few new things you need for your new place. I got a new mattress and a few new pieces of furniture. This move feels like a fresh start, a new beginning. I still have my same job, that's not changing, but there is a fresh start in my new place.

 

New beginnings can be from a range of contexts; entering a new year, starting a new job, moving to a new city, or beginning a new relationship. A new beginning could also be entering a new phase of life with an updated outlook or belief, like moving to a new place. The Bible offers advice and encouragement for beginning a new chapter by providing the strength and support of God. Embrace a fresh start. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

 

Every moment is an opportunity for a fresh start. You can argue that everything that preceded this moment has created who you are and how you think. To quote Avery Brooks' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character Commander Benjamin Sisko, "We use past experience to help guide us….all the experiences in our lives prepared us for [this moment]." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine "Emissary") We still have the capacity to notice the momentum of our lives pushing us in a certain direction, be still, and choose a new response. We don't need a life-changing event for a fresh start. As you wind down the day, see if you can view tomorrow as the beginning of the rest of your life. Embrace what is to come.

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Moment of Zen: Mischievous Smile

I wonder what he’s about to get up to. 

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At the Spring Dawn

At the Spring Dawn

By Angelina Weld Grimké

I watched the dawn come,

    Watched the spring dawn come.

And the red sun shouldered his way up

    Through the grey, through the blue,

Through the lilac mists.

The quiet of it! The goodness of it!

    And one bird awoke, sang, whirred

A blur of moving black against the sun,

    Sang again—afar off.

And I stretched my arms to the redness of the sun,

    Stretched to my finger tips,

        And I laughed.

Ah! It is good to be alive, good to love,

    At the dawn,

        At the spring dawn.

Angelina Weld Grimké, born in Boston, on February 27, 1880, was a journalist, playwright, and poet from the Harlem Renaissance. Her work was collected in several Harlem Renaissance anthologies, including Negro Poets and Their Poems (The Associated Publishers, 1923) and The New Negro (Atheneum, 1925). She died on June 10, 1958.

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