I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is … - Barbara Brown Taylor

To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight, and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings. — Wendell Berry

"I always wondered why it took "three days" for significant things to happen in the Bible — Jonah spent three days in the belly of the whale, Jesus spent three days in the tomb, Paul spent three days blind in Damascus — and now I know. From earliest times, people learned that was how long they had to wait in the dark before the sliver of the new moon appeared in the sky. For three days every month they practiced resurrection."

According to a recent article in the New York Times, few parents expose their children to those works in the original these days, and some of their reasons make sense. Who wants children growing up with the idea that stepmothers are wicked, ugly people are evil, women can get by on their beauty, and princesses are all white? At the same time, I worry about children who grow up thinking that every story has a happy ending and no one gets permanently hurt along the way.