In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone.
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
long and long ago.
Tonight is the longest night of the year. It has been a very long year, very dark in many places but full of light in others, the light of friends and of family, and perhaps of hope. Cocooned in a blanket of snow and shadows, I will leave a vigil candle burning through the night, a tiny flame of hope through the long darkness, foreshadowing the greater light that is to come.
