The darkness doesn't usually come upon us all at once. It drips, it creeps into our lives in small ways – not starting out with any of the bold and deadly sins -sloth, wrath, envy , lust, pride, greed, gluttony (surely there are more than 7 of them) – but rather subtlety arriving…like self-care turning to self obsession, fatigue that gives way to sloth, failure stumbling us into our pride - mixed with any of these with a little grief or the waning of aging or raging hormones...and soon we find the moments of darkness, the occasions when we are disheartened, decide to linger, then stay and we are awash in the whole of it, the gray that drapes us like a leaden blanket laden with the weight of our small self in a raging world all too willing to ignore and chide us now for lagging behind and then, then the worst thing happens – the darkness, the empty hole starts to feel…comfortable, real and necessary. We believe that for all the effort and energy we have spent – this is the ultimate destination and we surrender to the truth that there really isn’t anything better but transient, demanding and flirtatious hope – a mad muse that Pucks among us taking joy from our ardent pursuit -and we choose to concede to the loss of hope and settle into the finding of the dark. It is then that, void of a miracle, we are lost.