Mary Oliver is a wonderful contemporary poet.  She has a recently published collection called Thirst.  She deals poetically with the death of her partner of 40+ years.  I’ve had the new book sitting on my desk, buried under more important things than poetry.  This morning I was still angry about Roger’s death.  I threw stuff off my desk to clear the clutter and happened across the book.  I flipped open to a poem called “The Uses of Sorrow” and I read-

Someone I loved once gave me

a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand

that this, too, was a gift.

Sometimes God speaks to me so clearly I can hardly believe it!

So what is the darkness you have been given for this season of Lent?  What are you doing with it?  Is it put away in a closet or is it out in the open?  Are you wandering in the darkness or trying to stay put?  Can you imagine a gift in this darkness?  Keep trying, I bet it is there.