Fear of Darkness

We are a people who fear the darkness. We see shadows under the bed and hear noises in the closet, and we just know the monsters are waiting to overpower us. Often, we fight everything we perceive to be darkness, fearing that, if we don't, the darkness will overtake us and all will be lost. We even fight the darkness in ourselves to the point of covering it up or denying its existence.

The funny thing about darkness...we believe that light chases the darkness away. When you illuminate a dark room, the darkness magically leaves. Or does it? The reality is, the darkness is still there. Light has the ability to transform the darkness into something not so scary. Things that often hide in the shadows can be plainly seen once exposed to even a tiny amount of light.

Darkness is not the big, bad entity we have conjured it to be. It is not something to fight and overcome. Rather, it is through embracing the darkness we are able to truly transform it. It is only through allowing the light to blend together with the dark we can truly be whole.

Do you fear darkness? Overcoming the fear is as simple as turning on the light.

Embracing All of Myself

Growing up Christian, I was taught being a sinful human was a wretched thing to be. While it is impossible for us to be perfect, we are to shy away from our sinful natures as much as possible in order to show our commitment to the Light. I do try to be mindful of the actions I take in the world--mainly because I believe what I send out also comes back to me. However, I have also spent vast amounts of time denying,  ignoring, or making amends for those "sins" I have committed. In doing so, I have spent a great deal of energy denying a key element of myself--the darkness within.

One of my favorite quotes is by Teilhard de Chardin. "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." I believe that planet earth is a place we choose to come to learn about ourselves and the universe. The best and easiest way to do this is to provide ourselves with character flaws and problems which we have to work through--those things we view as weaknesses or darkness. Humans are flawed. They were designed to be that way. We put our spiritual selves in an imperfct human form in order to grow.    

When we refuse to embrace all parts of ourselves, including the darkness, we deny our humanness. In a very real sense we deny the experiences we came to earth to learn from. It is from understanding the darkness in our own natures that we have the ability to understand and appreciate the light. As I embrace all of myself--darkness and light--I allow myself to receive all the benefits this human experience offers.