This piece was first read on the day after the total solar eclipse of 2024, when multitudes in Ontario, Canada, stopped their usual business to witness what happens when for just a few minutes, our day is deprived of the sun– that great fire so totally outside of us and independent of us. Blinding when we consider it directly and all-consuming in the sheer magnitude of its energy — this same sun daily gives us light, heat, and the rhythm we need to exists as a planet and a people. There’s an awe & a grace implicit in the fact that we exist like this, as inhabitants of Earth. This piece is a brief meditation on the invitation to life and vitality inherent in each new daybreak. Even & especially when our days might be hard to face, and darkness lingers. I reflected on those close to me, struggling through a difficult life-change and finding it hard to face each new day with hope. On my own struggle to face the day in a recent season of life. « The sun also rises », said Hemingway, who was quoting the writer of Ecclesiastes — and a new day can & does bring the possibility of new life and an invitation to persevere, even as seasons change and even when darkness seems to overwhelm. I hope this piece helps lift up a head or two, drawn to a fire that warms and gives light. In the title and aspiration of this piece I also want to pay special tribute to my friends at a community called L’ Arche Daybreak, in Richmond Hill, Ontario: so may beautiful souls there have consistently reminded me how much light and grace there is to behold in each person we meet… how much light & grace might be holding all things together in the end.
