Light and Shadow

And you’re in the middle of it before you even know you’re there.

Welcome to the world, child.

Sometimes it’s waves rolling in the distance on a dark night with nothing but the bare stars overhead. Sometimes it’s plunging into the deep before you’ve quite learned how to swim, and you struggle with arms and legs trying to find which way is the airy surface. Sometimes it’s an undertow that grasps you with freezing fingers that drag you into the breathless Deep, so dark you’ll never find your way back again.

But the warm sun can glow on your skin, and your eyes can open to the Light.

Not all of us choose the Light. Because it’s so bright out there and you can get burned, for one thing. Because it can be hard on your eyes to live in the bright of day until the sun goes down. Because the Light exposes your every flaw and leaves you open to attack and naked to harsh judgment.

Choose the Light anyway.

Some of us choose the Darkness. Because how could it be good when there’s always the fear of drowning or creeping Death? Because how could it be good when it can hurt so very badly and the good things slip through our fingers like the waves through our hair? Because how could it be good when it’s always rushing beyond your grasp and there’s not a thing in the world to hold onto?

Yet somehow they still love the Light.

They hate it, but they love it.

Most of us choose the Shadows. Because the Light allures, but it asks too much. Because the Darkness calls, but we still have hope. Because we think we have time to think it over first.

Because it can hurt so badly that all you’ll want is to get away forever.

You will want to hide in the Shadows. I won’t lie to you. And they’ll make it easier for you to choose that current with every passing day.

“Who are you to strive for the Light?” they’ll ask. “What makes you think you deserve it?”

Don’t listen to them. You put them to shame, and that’s what speaks when they talk like that. They say things like that when they see you doing what they know they ought to do.

But don’t condemn them for speaking that way. It’s only the Shadow in them that talks like that. Speak to the better part of them, speak to the part that loves the Light. Even in the most benighted of them, there’s a sliver of soul that loves the Light. Even for the worst of them, there may still be hope.

Love them for the sake of that hope.

Love them because your love just might call out the highest in them.

Love them because the more you love, the more you’ll find under the sun that’s good and worthy of loving.

Remember: even the worst of them is not purely bad. The worst of them is afraid. (So afraid!)

Afraid of the strength of the current. Afraid of the Light and its incredible demands. Afraid of never having enough even though there is no holding on.

But most of all: afraid to venture from the Shadow to the wideness of the Sea.

They feel safe in the Shadow. You’ll feel safe in the Shadow. I often feel safe in the Shadow. Because the Shadow offers a relief from fear — a false relief, which only increases the fear in the end. They all yearn for the Light, but they fear it. And so they cling to the Shadow out of fear, loving the Light but increasing their terror of it with each day that passes.

So I tell you simply: you must love the Light more than you fear it.

You must love the Light enough to look like a fool for the sake of your love. You must love the Light enough to face insult, ridicule, and even fists or daggers for the sake of your love. You must love the Light enough to grope like a blind one and make humiliating blunders in your search, for the sake of your love.

If you are not willing, keep to the Shadow. Let the fear eat you.

As for the Light, I cannot speak for it. It calls out to every one of us. It calls with a quiet voice, so easily drowned in the sigh of the world’s waves. It calls us each in our own way, to our own path, and instructs us in our own nature.

You must answer that call. Or you can choose the Shadows.

The Light is an exacting master. It will demand more of you than you believe you have it in you to give. It will humble you in ways you cannot imagine. It will break you of your separation and return you to your own highest nature.

Can you hear it calling? Do you hear it whisper?

You must answer that call.

Or not.