Four Days of Advent: The Star and the Solstice

Today, the shortest hours of daylight
Tonight, the brightest stars at night
From the well of darkness, looking up,
the stars are brightest.
It requires the night to see the light.

“Help me be Your Brightness, Lord”  Ps 60:19

I have a star that guides me…

I still don’t know how it happened…
That I became ‘Brightness’ and he became ‘Lite’
But, it just was that way.
Together, we forged a way of walking together through the dark.
I was there when the top of the corporate mountain left him empty and
searching for the light.
Not the child of youthful dreams and eager expectation,
I was the child of the elder years — where dark and light co-mingle into real.
He was there when the Way that became my Way was through the dark instead of around it.

Father and daughter, but partners in the quest for what matters.
In the presence of others, always a banter and a debate.
But when it was just Brightness and Lite, there was sacred silence.
Long car rides in silence of presence.
Lingering afternoons on Woolworth Ave in Omaha,
my knowing he was on a journey towards the light.
And this journey was one that I could not be in the drivers seat.
Knowing my mother was there already, made it the Bethlehem of new life.
I lingered in the silence of searching and he became the Star of Light.

After he died, I discovered what Brightness means and the Star that leads.
It’s the crisp moment when glaring, glistening sun emerges in blinding light.
There is my star of Bethlehem,
the Brightness of Light that leads me —
that leads each of us.

“Help me be Your Brightness, Lord”  Ps 60:19

Finding the solstice Star to Bethlehem of the heart.
This is the Advent of Now.

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I am the star
we followed you, Star
we, the shepherds who
saw something we could not ignore
the pull of gravitational certitude
in the face of despairing economy
and unyielding governmental force.

I am the star
we followed you, Star
we, the astronomers
of both lore and history
To see what would be revealed
by what cannot be understood
with reason alone
but with the open heart
changed in the simple act of friendship with
those who were in enemy camps.

I am the star.
We followed you, Star
we, the animals —
the lamb, the oxen, the donkey
who live from the instinct
of knowing
rather than the
complexity of understanding.
We followed what we
could feel to the place
where hope rests

I am the star.
We followed you, Star
through the valleys of time,
leaving behind what we knew
to be counted
and to count on one another
in this journey of
listening to dreams
following calls
and
being willing to discover
what lies ahead in the heart of Bethlehem
and Bethlehem of the heart.

I am the star.
Up in the sky
and deep in the heart
the Brightness
that awakens you
in this Advent of now.

Look up.
Look Within.
Look around.

I am the Star.
Your Star
for your safe
journey to the stable.

I am the Star.