It is the winter solstice, the longest night of the year.

I emerge from this night with my soul intact:
    it is whole but fractured;
        it is complete but damaged.

This is all I have to offer myself.
This is all I have to offer the universe.
This is all I have to offer anyone who will accept it
    as it is,
        for what it is worth,
            and with the love that it deserves.

It is me.
It is who I am for right now.
It is the beginning of a catharsis that will twist and turn until it is complete.
It is the ending of a torturous past that was all fraud and all lie, all tooth and all nail.

There is a new dawn.
There is a new light.
There is a new time.

Still cold.
Still dark.
Still quiet.

But full of promise and potential under the bitter ice of experience.

This starts a new road into the spring of my life.
New life awaits under these sheets of deceptively beautiful snow,
    real life just waiting for the warmth of the sun’s love.

This is me continuing on with the journey.
This is me continuing on with the task.
This is me continuing on with being me.