Sun Settling | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Sun Settling | Previous Challenge Entry
By Emily Gibson
11/06/08
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It will too soon be time to bid farewell to autumn and accept the arrival of the winter solstice signaling the long slow climb back to daylight. An late autumn sunset can be a startling send-off for fall, coloring the mountains orange-pink in the nearby Cascade range and surrounding an almost full moon with purple in the eastern sky. Our barnyard, for a deceptive few minutes, appears rosy and warm in crisp subfreezing weather. Then all becomes gray again, and within an hour we become shrouded in thick fog which ices the asphalt as darkness falls. It becomes a challenge to avoid the deep ditches along our country roads, with the white fog line being the critical marker preventing potential disaster.

The everpresent evening fog this time of year cloaks and smothers us in the darkness, not unlike the respiratory viruses that have hit households hard this time of year. We are feverish, coughing and snuffling, unable to see past the ends of our own swollen noses, as if the fog descended upon each of us in an impenetrable gray cloud. It is an unwelcome reminder of our vulnerability to microscopic organisms that can defeat us and lay us low in a matter of hours, just as a sudden fog can misguide us to the ditch. We are forced to stay put, at a time when there are dozens of responsibilities vying for attention in preparation for the holidays. Little gets accomplished other than the slow wait for healing and clarity--at some point the viral fog will dissipate and we can try climbing back into life and navigating without the fog lines as guides.

The day's transition to night is bittersweet: bright flames of color, heralding our uneasy future sleep.
So the sun "settles" upon the earth and so should we.

Be at ease, put down the heavy burden and rest. Celebrate, with chorus and gifts, the arrival of brilliant light in our lives. Instead of darkness overcoming us, our lives become illuminated in glory and grace.

The Son has settled among us.

Evermore and evermore.

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