Infinity Health & Wellness Magazine December / January 2017 | Page 12

No,I Want
Leonard Cohen,
it Lighter, Please
by Patti Lightflower
The darkest time of the year is upon us. Our
cyclic journey on a tilted mother Earth takes us
to our farthest distance from our greatest source
of light and warmth, our own star, our Sun. We
are reminded that endings are followed by new
beginnings and opportunities lie ahead for fresh
growth and renewal.
As we enter these days of long shadows and early
twilights we find ourselves surrounded by, and even
immersed in, the spirit of celebrations from many
different cultures and perspectives. These holidays
bring friends and family together and remind us to
take time away from our busy work and projects to
relax, enjoy life, and to think about others and pray
for Peace on Earth.
These past few weeks have felt very dark for many
of us here in the United States. Faced with choices
for candidates that left people feeling uncertainty,

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anger and concern, as well as for others these same
candidates represented hope, change, and new
beginnings. No matter who won, the division was
so strong it became a lose-lose feeling rather than
a win-win or any kind of compromise. Each side
feeling to lose would be dire.
A bard, an archivist, Leonard Cohen has captured
the essence of our times much like Jack Kerouac was
of his times, and Shakespeare of his. He understood
and spoke to the hearts of the free spirited idealistic
romantics in his classic, “Suzanne” . Immortalizing
romance in his slightly raspy voice to a lost love,
Marianne, he whispers how it’s time to laugh and
to cry all over again. Perhaps they are together
again in spirit. In a poem just for her in her final
hours a short time ago, he wrote for her she only
needed reach out her hand, he wasn’t far behind.
He speaks of both the raw realities and of the sheer
beauty of being a human. After 80 plus years on

Dec / Jan 2017