Transcript for January 31, 2010 by Mary Ackerson

When she seized control of Narnia, the White Witch made it Always Winter ,
Always Winter and Never Christmas.

Can you imagine? Can you imagine… month after month, day after day, morning after morning,
Everyday waking to yet another gray-white snow molded landscape,
Everyday snow, drained of color, lacking in warmth, devoid of hope?

For sometimes it feels like that… Sometimes it feels like Everyday Winter…
In these shortened days of weakened sunlight and cloud-shrouded nights, it can feel like that,
Our sun-deprived selves become grouchier, less tolerant, more morose.
It’s harder to laugh and easier to lash out

Harder to find solutions and easier to find blame.

When going out means bundling up, when taking a walk means risking a fall, it’s easier to stay inside, we become more isolated, more alone,
more attuned to the media drama of never-ending catastrophe,
less attuned to the tempering effects of human contact.

The inevitable bad news of the day threatens to overwhelm … Relentless in its pull toward darkness…

We feel helpless in the face of unimaginable disaster wrought once again upon Haiti,
Through economic dread and partisan bickering, we listen to our president of hope and try to believe that “Yes we can.”
We read of homeless families sleeping in Laundromats, watch school principals lower flags to half-mast reminders of yet another lost young life.

Winter gloom so easily magnifies our inner darkness – our mourning, our grief, our addictions, our illnesses and anxieties, our fears and uncertainties become icy fogs caressing our souls, tempting us with cynicism and despair.

But we are not Narnia and our winter does have an end.
Listening closely and watching carefully, we find whispers of warmer days ahead…

The sun rises a bit earlier and sets a bit later, swan pairs soar low over open water,
Geese formations honk overhead, squirrels scold and chatter their mating game races round tree trunks.

Bare tree silhouettes begin to change. Stronger daylight entices tree limb ends to sprout surprising buds,
swells of life emerging through snow dust.

For we are not Narnia and we are not alone….we are secure in the promise of spring, we have braved the cold and gathered in hope…
we have remembered that we are more together than all of us alone,
we have nurtured a community of acceptance and grace, of journey and growth,
we have denied the White Witch’s spell

So in these waning days of winter, let us renew again our own Audacity of Hope,
Let us be gentle and brave…gentle with ourselves and with each other, forgiving of our frailties and fears, embracing even those who would call us to task, would challenge our convictions.

Let us be brave enough to believe – to believe in dreams and futures, in creativity and life, in possibilities yet unimagined,
Let us be brave enough to look deeply into each other’s eyes, to find the humanity behind the fear,
to notice each others’ pain and reach out with kindness and kinship.

Let us be hole fillers for each other, hole fillers for a world where we are not on our own.