“I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”
–T.S. Eliot, from “East Coker”
How do you still your soul when you are impatient for change?
Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of the light that refused to go out, the oil the kept burning as long as it was needed. In the dark of the year, Hanukkah honors all the ways that we manage to keep the light of faith, of hope, of joy, of compassion, of freedom burning , even when it would seem logical for that light to burn out.
What helps you keep the light in your soul alive?
My father used to sing the old song “Look for the silver lining whenever clouds appear in the blue.” This always confused me as a child, since clouds very often do have silver-grey edges. But perhaps my childish failure to understand “silver lining” wasn’t so far off. Maybe, rather than trying to remember that “somewhere the sun is shining” we’re better off seeing the beauty in the clouds themselves.
Where have you found unexpected beauty?
