In the Darkness Our Spirits Shine

Placed deep within a steely furnace at the earth’s center

the human soulーthe world soulーis being initiated.

A fire is burning.

For it is only with heat,

the heat of rage,

the heat of passion,

the heat of absolute weariness,

the heat of single-pointed intention that alchemy can begin.

Anything that stirs our aliveness can be used as a tool in this 

breakdown, breakthrough process.

We will know this transformation as more than ordinary change

by its elemental, visceral squeeze in our animal bodies,

its grip on our chest, 

its whirl in our innards, 

warm blood flowing 

and canines gleaming.

There is so much to do,

plucking and pulling and cutting, 

dismantling this painful tangle of inequity and domination,

cleansing our ancestral lines, 

further essentializing,

simplifying, 

finding what truths want to rise, 

precious buoys silently breaking the surface of our hearts.

Opening our old eyes, we are brought together to feel

how in the loss, resurrection is possible.

I know it hurts, dear. 

I know we have been here before, dear. 

I know that sometimes it feels like too much, dear.

But I have to believe we will survive it,

for it is only in the darkness 

that we see how our spirits shine. 

©️ Kendra Ward, 2020

[Winter feels like a good time to contemplate what we come to know only through the darkness of our lives. I wrote this a couple of years ago, feeling inspired after a class about the Five Elements with Lorie Dechar. It is the Water element/Kidney energy/winter time, when we have the potential to enter ancestor time and connect deeply with our spiritual storehouses.]