Let the darkness heal and tend you ~

 

There is so much weariness in these days when Covid fills the air and the hospitals.  Perhaps you are exhausted.  Perhaps you laugh with a sharp edge, or sigh at the thought of rest.  Perhaps it makes you angry that rest could even be suggested when you know how it is on the front lines. Or perhaps your days seem endless, all  you can do in these days of enclosure is what might pass for rest. 

Whether we’re snatching sleep or counting long hours of loneliness or managing I think we could all do with the rhythm of lullaby and the words that assure us that we are tended, healed, held through the darkness. 

Remember the Welsh lullaby All Through the Night.  Do you hear it’s gentle rhythm.  This is for you.

Rest belov’d and peace attend you
All through the night.
Let the darkness heal and tend you
All through the night
Through the breath of Christ and Spirit
Know yourself as one befriended
joined in God’s communal mending,
all through the night.

Rest belov’d within Christ’s weaving
all through the night.
Opened heart God’s grace receiving
all through the night.
Breathe through all your own concealments
tender grace in dark revealing,
casting round your life its healing,
all through the night.

 

Words:  Catherine E. Smith © 2020
Tune:    All Through the Night  (Welsh lullaby)