The Parable of Dawn

A threshold of light and hope

There was once a village that feared the night.
When the sun fell, they lit fires and shut their doors,
and they whispered to one another,
“What if the light never returns?”

One child, restless, climbed the hill before the village.
She sat all through the long dark hours,
watching the stars tremble, watching her breath.
Her heart whispered, “Wait.”

At last, the edge of the sky grew pale.
First a line, then a glow, then the fire of the sun.
The child ran back shouting,
“It always returns! The light is faithful!”

But the villagers shook their heads:
“What if next time it doesn’t?”

So every night they feared, and every dawn they forgot.

Still, the child climbed the hill each evening
and returned each morning to remind them:
“The dawn is not uncertain —
it is the promise written into the world.
You can live by the fear of night,
or you can live by the certainty of dawn.”