Shadow and Light

"Only in darkness can you see the stars."
~Martin Luther King Jr.

As I fall back into Daylight Savings Time, and embrace the shorter days and the darkness of the night I look forward to the revelations I may have during night fall. Much is revealed when the darkness comes. I write this on Dia de los Meurtos, the day after Halloween where we come in close contact with the spirit world. The veil is very thin during this time of year. It is appropriate to become more nocturnal. Night time is a place where secrets are told. There is intimacy in the darkness. More is revealed in the in-between spaces of the night, as we come closer to the spirit world and the dream time.

 B photography, shadow and light, the body's edge. Schattenspiel

The emotionally dark times can bring us into deeper intimacy with ourselves. I have found my greatest strengths as I struggled with the despair of a loved one dying, the agony of my physical body failing me either through an injury or internally or the devastation of romantic heartbreak. It is in these moments when I stand alone and face my fears and my shadow that I stare into the void and am somehow imbued with an inner strength that seemingly comes from nowhere. It gives me faith on my journey. It reminds me that I am the heroine of my own story.

Shadow is a valuable commodity. While many selectively view themselves as positive or light, I embrace my depth and my dark. I dive into the abyss of the emptiness to explore the territory where no one has been. This is the ride I have chosen. The both/and. The shadow/light. I have seen signposts along the way telling me that this space is most fertile. I have heard that nature abhors a vacuum. Or that not-knowing is the most creative state. Time and again when I feel that I can't go on and I let go and surrender to the unknown, something new will appear. Just as when I look to the sky for that first star of the night with childhood memories of the promise that Jiminy Cricket made to me. I make my wish from that empty place of yearning and desire.

 I know that without my darkness my light will not shine as bright. I know that I must love this being fully. She longs to be known for all of who she is, not just the fruits of her labor, but the arduous journeyer that she is. Each step on the well worn path, pressed into her face and peppered throughout the strands of grey in her DNA. She wants to be seen. And she wants to see you.

Let us stand strong and watch the shadows play upon our faces as we gaze up at the stars in tonight's sky. Let us watch the shapes of dark and light that moon casts upon these well etched and hard earned wrinkles.

Oh how I love your empty spaces and your in-between places.