The New Year

It’s early in the new year,
usually a time of shoulds,
doing more
and better,
lists and intentions and goals.
All good,
probably.

But I wonder,
might we think about
doing less?
Might we take time,
at least a little,
to sit,
and do what looks like nothing.
Might we enjoy
the gifts of the season:
darkness
and silence.

I am sometimes awake before dawn,
before the early slant of light
appears in the winter sky.
It is time slowed
for a while.

Perhaps we are meant to hibernate
just a little
to withdraw
and luxuriate in inner spaciousness.
Perhaps then
in that interior darkness
and silence,
we might hear the still small voice
that calls,
in the whispers of soul.

Patricia Greer