From the Heart: The Time for Light

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~Plato

It is always in the evenings that I sit down to write these more personal posts.

I turn the main light above the table on very, very low, and I light my most precious, favorite “writing” candle. It's the one my son gave me for Christmas a year ago, now burned about half-way down, and I set it in front of me for a few minutes, taking in its fragrance and its warmth.

And then I wait...

I wait and I open myself up, to the best of my ability, to make room for the muse to come in and whisper to my soul the lessons that I need to hear and to learn, and then perhaps share outwardly in whatever small way that I can through these personal scribblings of mine that I call “From the Heart”.

And it is in the light of that candle that I find such comfort and mercy as it flickers and dances, straightens and wriggles, as if pulled by some mysterious force above it that it has no choice but to honor and to hand itself over to fully.

It is in that gentle, warm light that any anxiety that is present within me melts away for a while, that peace comes in, and an illumination of a path occurs, one that perhaps I never realized existed, but suddenly, there it is, before me, ready for me step onto and walk.

We cannot stay in the dark and expect to find genuine answers, cannot work in the shadows and expect to find understanding and enlightenment.

Light has a way of doing that. It has a way of opening the door to hope, to understanding, to seeing.

It has a way of encouraging realization.

It enables revelation to take place—revelation of one's self, revelation of the state of things, revelation of what is and what could be.

And light is what our world desperately needs right now, especially in this season, this space, this place, this part of our journey that we are in.

This is the time for light, for deeper understanding, for coming out of the shadows, and for hope to be welcomed in.

This is the time to push the fear away, to see what is truly there within our hearts, and to deal with the findings as authentically, and honestly, and courageously as we possible can. For what is there is in desperate need of some mercy.

It is in need of some cleansing and some healing.

We cannot stay in the dark and expect to find genuine answers, cannot work in the shadows and expect to find understanding and enlightenment.

It is only in the light of love, in the light of compassion, and in the light of empathy that any good can come.

It is only by light that any endeavor of any worth can take place, that anything of substance, of value, and of meaning can manifest.

If ever there was a time for light, it is now.

But it requires something from each of us individually if truth is to be found, which is to boldly step into it with more than just one toe cautiously dipped in. It requires us to completely submerge ourselves.

And if we are not willing to do this, then we must make peace with operating on half-truths and misunderstandings, and we must stop complaining.

The light is there and available to us, but the question is, will we be brave enough to allow it to encompass and enter into us? Will we allow it show us ourselves?

The time for light is now, not tomorrow.

May we allow it to come in and illuminate any darkness that exists.

Taste what's good and pass it on.

Ingrid