“May the blessed light be on you, light without and light within. May the blessed sunlight shine on you and warm your heart until it glows like a great fire, so that a stranger may come and warm himself at it, and also a friend.” –Irish Blessing

It is the seventh day of December and thoughts of the brevity of time swirl in my head like a winter storm. The light of day is brief; it is 4:30 in the afternoon and I light a candle, an instinctual and essential ritual that helps to keep the darkness at bay. For the sun sets early here in New England in the great woods of New Hampshire, where December can be a month heavy with darkness. Read more