darkness Archives %- – Rock The Wrinkle

We get many different kinds of gifts at Christmas. Some we asked for. Some we really don’t want, but appreciate the effort. Some are surprises; some are specific answers to requests.

But it’s often the unexpected that really touch our heart.

A friend, someone dealing with all kinds of challenges in her life, left me a gift at my door. It’s one that I think is setting the tone for my 2016.

It’s one of those (and forgive the fact that I’m not good at this description) garden stakes that absorbs the sunlight, and then later in the dark changes colors. At the top of this stake is a glass angel. I don’t know how, but it turns blue, green, red, purple…at night, in the dark, after a day of capturing sunlight.

I absolutely love it.

I first noticed it working its magic this evening, which by the time you read this, will be last night or a few nights ago, but it doesn’t matter. It was a wonderful, unexpected surprise. Light and color in the blackness. Beauty piercing the stillness.

I love that it’s so many colors. And that it bursts through the darkness to shine as bright as any light during the day. I’m thinking it’s a sign of the new year.

We’re in this together.

We are so many colors.

And the best gift we can give each other is to shine in the darkness. to celebrate the diversity of who we are, and to radiate light for one another.

Like anybody, I’d like my new year to be filled with wellness. With good income and easy days. With friends and love and less worry.

But who knows what is ahead…things happen. Hearts get broken. Challenges descend without warning. People we love die.

Yet, could we….as this simple glass angel is doing…project a light for others to follow? Could we remember that just our presence sometimes is enough to light the life for someone in need?

I hope so. All I know is seeing this angel so filled with beauty in the blackness of night, fills me with hope.

A new year is coming. Why not see it as an opportunity to really make a difference…even if it’s just a note, or a hug, or a smile for a stranger?

I’m going to try. Because life is so short, and can be so hard.

But it also can be so wonderful.

And we have more power than we think to make it so.

Happy New Year…..Happy year of light.

“To love beauty is to see light.”

Victor Hugo

Why are we still afraid of the dark?

Not the dark closet in our bedrooms where the monsters of childhood hide. Not the darkness outside when you think you just heard footsteps by the gate and you can’t see your hand in front of your face.

I’m talking about the dark or “shadow” places of our souls…where our doubts and worries and resentments and unfilled dreams live.

Surely all that is part of us is good, or at least worthy of inspection. We know we can’t be Happy Howard or Smiling Susie all the time. And as boomers and beyond, we are plenty aware that while we would like to think we’ve worked on all our “issues”, there’s still a whole file cabinet filled with squirming toads in the back of our minds.

So why are we so scared to admit it even exists?

Are the shadow parts of ourselves something we should fear and avoid, or embrace as an invitation to live a full life? To be fully human, and know that light always follows darkness?

Writer, professor and Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor explores this quandary in “Learning to Walk in the Dark.” She says:

“If you are my age, you are losing a lot more things than you once did—not just your keys and your vision, but also your landmarks, but also your sense of sense. You are going to a lot more funerals than before. When you read your class notes in the alumni news, they are shorter and near the top all the time. You know full well where this is heading, but you also know you are not ready yet. So how are you supposed to get ready? …. It is time for a walk in the dark.”

“You have knocked on doors that have not been opened. You have asked for bread and been given a stone. The job that once defined you has lost its meaning; relationships that once sustained you have changed or come to their natural ends. It is time to reinvent everything…it may be time for a walk in the dark.”

Everyone’s “walk” will be unique to what they need to explore, resolve, or even admit to. Is it a passion you let go of?

A love that got away?

A resentment that past abuse or mistreatment robbed you of what you could have been?

The death of a beloved friend or relative?

Or fears about taking the next big step in a relationship or career, or a major change of life?

Taylor talks about how she really does enjoy being outside in the dark. I can relate. We forget how the night can welcome us. How uplifting it can be to study the stars, see a comet grace the sky, or hear an owl’s call under a full moon. As children we loved playing in the dark, that’s when games really took on magic. And when ice cream tasted better. It felt friendly and safe.

Even now, if you haven’t in a long time, try sitting outside in the dark some evening. Feel the breeze. Watch the clouds if there’s enough moonlight. Listen to what the night is saying. Maybe it’s all trying to tell us that we’ll always face times when walking through a dark forest is the only way to get to our destination.

And the only difference between the lovely woods and that dark forest is lack of light…not a new evil presence. So instead of immediately turning on the flashlight, what if we just trust our senses to get through the dark patch, knowing it might get easier each time we did?

In other words, if we let our eyes adjust to the dark…who knows what we might see?