When I walked out this morning, the sun was all around me. So were the shadows. I couldn’t deny them, they marked the very ground I walked on.
I don’t want to seem too clever or clichéd, but is this not life as well?
Had anyone (or God, to be more precise) asked me if I would like a life of sunshine without the shadows, would I have said a plain yes? Of course not. I would have shouted it with all my might, YES YES YES! No modesty here. I mean, who wants darkness?
Yet, I know this. Life on earth rests on certain principles. Where there is sun, you find shadows. To deny it, proves as hazardous as denying the law of gravity.
If I don’t track down my shadows, they will track me down. I have some experience. I know.
Yet Wendell Berry in “I Go Among Trees and Sit Still” comforts me. He walks. He sits.
Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.
When I started this blog, I wrote about anxiety. It can become a habit, like writing from left to right. To live a poem, to walk it, breath it, was and is a way of getting out of my automatic thinking, to inject some new thoughts.
When I walked out this morning, the sun was all around me. So were the shadows. I couldn’t deny them. And perhaps there is no need.
In everything there is a balance. I know I would not be who I am without the pain and sorrow I've endured. Out of all that my character was forged and given shape, to become this opposite of life before - compassionate, understanding and yes, at times afraid despite my courage.
ReplyDeleteWe embrace our shadows for they hold the tempest of our endurance. (Hugs)Indigo
It takes light to make a shadow. We need the dark to see the light. xoxo
ReplyDeleteHuh. Of course, Grete, I am just learning of you and so I am surprised that you would choose to live in the sunlight and forgo the shadows. I don't really understand this. I accept that the light necessitates the dark and that I need it to learn. Of course, I've had fear have me raise my feet real quick so as to not be bitten, but I am learning. (I also know that right now I am living a luxury of not having anything terribly bad happening...but I do know that it is just outside my door. I am mostly ok with this, but remind me if I forget.)
ReplyDeleteYou are an interesting puzzle to me. I'm learning here, too, Grete.
xo
erin
Indigo, Marion, Erin -
ReplyDeleteThank you for comments that made my mind, my heart and writing hand move.....You have inspired me for tomorrows post......
Grete