in the darkness where you've been lost.
I mean I could have just sat in the light of the perfect home that I created for myself, calling from my ivory tower with instructions for you to find your own way that would inevitably just soar over your head. I could keep spouting spiritual insights from the peace and comfort of heaven, but I already tried that and no matter how loudly or clearly I called, my messages were either not received or not understood.
It was silly to think that I could sit there in my own bubble of self-righteousness and expect to help guide you back to the light, for you would’ve needed to be in the light to even hear me. Besides, how could I really understand what situation you were actually in unless I came to find you? The best I could do is theorize about what might actually be needed to help you navigate your own way out. Any advice given from this place had the same odds of getting you more lost than it did of helping you to be found.
No. In order to truly help, I would need to meet you exactly where you were. I would need to forget all the wisdom and light and venture into the darkness. I would need to stumble around lost as you have until I found that place where you had been left alone and forgotten. I would need to hunger and thirst and grow weak as you have. Only then could I begin to help find your way back home. By meeting you where you were, we could walk with each other all the way, one-step-at-a-time.
This is not a new process for me. I’ve spent plenty of time getting lost in the dark. It seems a regular pastime for me. I’ve become so familiar with getting lost that I’ve formed a habit of leaving myself a breadcrumb trail on my way there, just to aid in finding my way back. Of course breadcrumbs are not dependable in every situation, and certainly not when your path home is a route that is not mine. But with the small amount of light that I carry, combined with your own, we will almost certainly find our way.
So I have purposely descended from my ivory tower, from feelings of peace, love, abundance, acceptance, and joy to locate you, to meet you where you are. This just happens to be in a realm of great suffering. It is lonely here. I find myself abandoned, neglected, challenged. It seems the entire world has gone completely insane and there is little hope of avoiding a total downward spiral and absolute catastrophe. It seems that there are many foes in this darkness, from the greedy and corrupt to the predatory and violent. Everything seems very complicated and there is no hope to be found.
I myself have become somewhat lost. I can’t even seem to maintain my own courage, as I must have left that at home or somewhere along the way. All the weapons that I might have carried to defend us against the circling wolves are nowhere to be found, leaving me only with my bare hands, already stiff and sore from the bitter cold. The only tools I can seem to find here are to numb out, give up, distract myself, or to face off with the wild animals directly in a battle I would certainly lose. They would rip me apart in a moment, so for a time I simply cower.
We are all human. We are all in a world that is facing great and unprecedented challenges. No one actually knows all the answers, and if they claim they do, they are lying to themselves, for if the answers they offer actually worked then we would not be in this situation. In all honesty, most of us can agree that the situation is dire and that things are very tough for anyone who is alive right now. It is like we are staring into the face of our own inevitable extinction and the extinction of most life on Earth. It seems that no one is attempting to stop the train from running off the cliff. We just keep adding coal to the fire and it seems there is little we can do. I get it.
Even here in the dark, even in all of my cynicism and negativity, I understand that we have resources available to us. In this case the most abundance resource is the darkness itself.
Courage was never anything besides a word until it came face-to-face with fear. Only then was there an opportunity to overcome with courageous action. Love was only an imaginary idea until we knew separation and apathy so that we could value what love had to offer. Light could not be distinguished or appreciated until we experienced the contrast of darkness. Perfection was so bland, until we discovered imperfection and the perfection found within duality.
Darkness is a resource, indeed. It is the raw material by which everything good can be created. It is the very resource that we will need to find our way back to the light of home. It motivates us to improve, to grow. It teaches us to overcome our fears and to act in spite of them. It shows us the value of compassion and love and enables us to employ it into the world in meaningful ways. It gives us the humility to understand that we are not perfect, while we continue to strive for more perfection in ourselves. The darkness teaches us to learn deeply and to apply our lessons authentically through positive actions that make tangible difference for others and ourselves.
The darkness is, in fact, just what is needed to get the train on a better course, but only if we embrace it and utilize it. Sitting here in the dark with our eyes squeezed tightly shut while we pretend that we’re in the light will not change our track. There is a necessary step of acknowledging where we are before we can begin navigating any sensible direction. There is a critical moment where we get to embrace our shadows so that they might finally be illuminated. It is this very illumination that will light our way home.
So is born Shadows Illuminated. It is my own humble way to begin our journey together. In Shadows Illuminated I share the truth of my own darkness, the best way that I know how to express. I share that it is not only okay to be human, but that it is a great gift, meant to be embraced and loved. It is the very light that I have found in this darkness where I have found all of you and have found all of me.
And now that I’ve found you here, let’s start walking each other home.
https://cedarbranches.wixsite.com/shadowsilluminated