I woke and it was 3am
Of course it was
That is the time when darkness gathers
Its intensity
Its accusations
Its fears
Anxieties
And dreads.
And yes, there they all were
A motley crew of frightening faces
And voices like the sound of fingernails
Across the proverbial blackboard
I smiled sweetly at these demons of darkness
And said
You’ll have to talk amongst yourselves
I have to go
I have a meeting with Jesus
“That name!” They cried in scratchy unison
(It is kryptonite to them)
“Don’t say it!” They gasped
Too late, I replied
That name once spoken can never be unsaid
Already it has rent the fabric of the cosmos
Allowing space for hope, and peace and kindness
“We hate those words!” The voices said
But I had already gone
Disappeared as if the floor had opened beneath me
And yes I dropped down under the clouds of their confusion
Their miasma of relentless torment
But I hadn’t so much fallen
As shifted to another dimension
A space between waking and sleeping
Silence and sound
Darkness and light
My feet felt the firm ground
Of a fertile imagination
A dreaming space in which one truly wakes up
To what is actually real
And there He was
With that look that only we share
The kind that lovers and life-long companions exchange
And that signals a holy communion
We walked together
He held my hand
I leaned into his side
Along moonlit paths
And through the silent forest
Resting besides still waters
We spoke little
But said a lot
It was enough
We were enough
For each other
And when I awoke
It was not 3am
And I knew that I could rise
In confidence and compassion
To embrace the new day.
Dr Phil Daughtry
