Suffering Season

Season last, long past showers of leaves swirling in kaleidoscope colors and after warm autumn breezes turn bitterly cold, I wrote about Advent; with candles aglow, meteors blazing and Italian Renaissance artists creating beautiful frescos to encourage us from below, to look upward.

Many of us during this season, hold dear thoughts and imaginings that are expectations, great expectations really… they are thoughts of hope for year next and for new beginnings. So in an attempt to solidify our dreams, we gaze up in the night sky looking to stars or bask in the glow of candle flame, thinking, imagining warmth, peace, comfort and still, desperately desiring illumination.

Suffering is painful and more than anything; more than anything in the world, we want to escape it. But for us, it is our time, our season of suffering. When the news first comes, we are numb to it because it isn’t yet real, but after the initial shock has gone, pain overwhelms. We scream, we wail, we run this way and that, aimlessly trying to find the trap door and get out. We have to find a way out; to get out, but we are held fast and left alone in the pain.

Is this your season? Are you facing the pain of bitter cold and emptiness longing for escape?
I want to be with you. I want to sit and hold you, without words. In silence, we will meet. In silence, we will share this bond of knowing and together, we will suffer this season of pain.