morning prayer (in advent)

when I can rise before the sun,
before anyone else,
and sit by the window, sit in
the peace of stillness
it is a good morning

when the toddler bursts awake yelling,
finds me and burrows warm onto my lap,
I light a candle – he quiets
and there is still a peacefulness

the year is dying and I feel deeply
that desire to draw close to the flame
as the dark and cold press in,
as the garden settles into its rest

something about the small candle
on the windowsill of a messy room,
he feels it too in his warm little body,
the dawn from on high breaking upon us

it draws us both, compels us onward
toward that home we have never seen
but have always longed for
this is the peace I seek
in the stillness of the morning